Talk series:

Meet your KU Community

12:10-12:55, Wednesday 5 July 2023
■ Zoom ■ In English■ Anyone in Kyoto University (and invited guests) is welcome
Sign up from hereà https://forms.gle/kF5YCSfTvXMxeQGD6Timeline

Welcome to “Meet Your KU Community”! This online networking event is aimed to connect researchers at Kyoto University
beyond research areas and faculties.
At our sixth meeting, Dr. Ethan SAHKER, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, will give a talk titled “SupportingInternational Student Mental Health.” International students report a higher prevalence of mental illness than Japanese
students, have less access to supports, and may be hesitant to seek help. As the international student population continues toincrease, academics and health professionals can improve the student experience by providing targeted and easily accessible
mental health supports aimed at improving student, interpersonal, institutional, and community outcomes. In this talk,he will introduce a community framework and discuss evidence- and skill-based psychoeducational approaches. It should
be of interest to people from the health sciences and all faculty and administration who interact with students.

12:10
12:10 -12:25
12:25 -12:30
12:30 -12:50
12:50 -12:55

Speaker

Ethan SAHKER

Assistant Professor,Graduate School of Medicine,
Kyoto University

Introduction
Presentation “Supporting International Student Mental Health” by Dr. Ethan SAHKER
Comments by Dr. Nicolas TAJAN
Q&A and networking
Updates from KURA
Ethan Sahker is an assistant professor in the Population Health & Policy Research Unit,
Medical Education Center, Graduate School of Medicine at Kyoto University. He earned
his PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Iowa, USA, and received
clinical training at the University of California San Diego/Veterans Affairs Hospital,specializing in trauma-focused therapy. He completed a JSPS postdoctoral fellowship atKyoto University in the School of Public Health. His research focuses on the clinicalepidemiology of addiction treatment identifying health disparities, and social capital
supports, and factors supporting recovery. He is currently focused on improving
addiction treatment access by advancing web-based intervention technologies inprimary care settings and is interested in student mentorship and mental health.

Dr. Tajan is a French psychologist and psychoanalyst, program-specific associate professor at
Kyoto University, and co-organizer of the Kyoto University International Mental HealthSeminar. He offers counseling to foreign students enrolled at the Faculty of Integrated HumanStudies and the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies. His research focuses
on psychopathology and psychoanalysis. He is the author of an open access book entitled“Mental Health and Social Withdrawal in Contemporary Japan: Beyond the Hikikomori
Spectrum” and the first recipient of the “Geneviève Haag” prize (2022) of the International
Coordination between Psychotherapists Psychoanalysts and Associate Members caring forpeople with Autism (CIPPA)

Bring your own lunch!
[Contact]

ecr@kura.kyoto-u.ac.jp / support_rs@kura.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Kyoto University Research Administration Center (KURA)

Commentator

Nicolas TAJAN

Program-Specific
Associate Professor,
Psychopathology andPsychoanalysis Lab,
Graduate School of
Human andEnvironmentalStudies,
Kyoto University