A member of Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers Inc.
President, Harai Consulting & Training Inc.
Dr. Harai, a psychiatrist and a behavior therapist, was formerly a director of Nagoya Mental Clinic. During over 30 years of his clinical practice, he committed to improving quality of care and treatment outcomes for patients with mental and behavioral disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD) in particular, through the state of art expertise to deliver evidence supported therapies. In Dec. 2017, He retired the director of Nagoya Mental Clinic, to start up his clinic in the center of Tokyo city to serve OCD patients in whole Japan.
In Nagoya mental clinic, he had accepted over 500 new referrals a year. Most of them were diagnosed as either anxiety disorder or/and depressive disorder. Dr. Harai is the chief psychiatrist and behavior therapist for OCD treatment program. This program takes over 4,000 new referrals of patients with OCD since its inception. His website appears in the first page of the major search engine results of OCD in Japanese. One of the popular Japanese magazines, “Shukan Asahi” featured him as one of the best doctors for OCD in Japan. Also, nationwide TV networks broadcasted the program four times.
He was trained as a trainer of Motivational Interviewing (MI) at Crete June, 2003, and is a member of Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT Inc.) since then. He is the first trainer of MI in East Asia. He has been offering trainings on regular basis for various healthcare workers including correction officers in Japan and Korea. In Nov. 2012, he was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of MINT by-election. In Aug. 2013, he was appointed as an associate clinical professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Hawai’i.
His research activities are mostly clinical. He has authored four books, many papers, and chapters mainly about learning theory, applications of cognitive behavior therapy for emotional disorders, Motivational Interviewing and research methods.
He has founded the department for clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of psychotropics in Kikuchi National Hospital. He has been involved in clinical trials ever since. His most recent contracts at Nagoya Mental Clinic are three randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials for bipolar disorders in adults, schizophrenia, and OCD in children.
He is also known as a proficient translator and interpreter. Notable works are two Atul Gawande’s books; “Better” and “Being Mortal.” He has interpreted late Hans Eysenck, Isaac Marks, William R. Miller, Richard Kogan, Robert Meyers, etc.