UPDATED Announcement from Dr. Riichiro Miwa Psychological Services

Dear Beloved All of You:

As you will all be aware, all Californians have been ordered to stay at home. Therefore, sadly to say, we are unable to see you in person for now.

Particularly because of this current emotionally provoking situation, we'd like to assure you all that our continuity of care is available via phone or other devices. If you haven't yet contacted your therapist and let us know what you'd like us to do, please do so at your convenience. If you even perhaps want more frequent session to assist you with coping with the current situation we all find ourselves in, please let us know. Or, if you want to take a pause from therapy for now to focus on your survival, that's also fine. We do care about your well-being and your letting us know what your current needs are helps us to understand what may be the best support we can give to you at this point.

In my opinion, the current situation we are in will affect our psychological health more and more over time. In order to help avoid it overwhelming you, please don't forget to acknowledge and accept all of your emotions, and find some way to express them in a healthy manner. Continuing good self-care is a key to maintaining your physical, psychological, and spiritual health, therefore, I really hope you actively implement it.

We are sincerely hoping all of you stay safe and healthy. We are looking forward to seeing all of your faces again eventually, once this pandemic is over.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Riichiro Miwa
Dr. Leeanne Marquez
Sharon Hou, AMFT

Dr. Riichiro Miwa
Licensed Clinical Psychologist (PSY 21622) / Life Coach
Dr. Riichiro Miwa Psychological Services

Announcement from Dr. Riichiro Miwa Psychological Services

Dear Valued and Beloved Clients:

How are you all doing? I am afraid many of you are experiencing big challenges and difficulties at this difficult time.

As you all know, the current coronavirus situation is really tough and anxiety-provoking for all of us.

You may have heard that Orange County issued an order yesterday, March 17th, that appeared to require businesses in OC to close their doors unless on a list of exceptions, and we were concerned how we could continue our support to all of you, particularly in such a time of such emotional stress and anxiety.

As of March 18, based on an update from Orange County, the order has been clarified as requiring businesses to conduct business while using "social distancing." I also directly confirmed it with OC Emergency Operation Staff. So, for now at least, we are able to continue providing our services in the office and we are more than happy to do so! 

We take your health and safety as seriously as we do our own. Please allow me to share some information on the steps we are taking to help protect you and ourselves from the COVID-19 virus.

- There is hand sanitizer available in the office for you to use should you cough or sneeze during a session.

- There are tissues available for you to use. Please cough or sneeze into a tissue if you have the urge or need to do so during a session.

- We use alcohol spray and wipe down contact surfaces between each client session, including the door handles and arms of the chairs.

- All therapists are washing their hands per the CDC guidelines before each client session. We also encourage all clients to use the bathrooms in the building to wash their hands as well according to the CDC guidelines before coming into the room for their session.


- The office was thoroughly vacuumed, wiped, and sanitized today. The positioning of the chairs in the office was also rearranged to provide more physical distance between the therapist and clients per the social distancing guidelines. Our emotional distance won't change, however; hopefully it will get even closer.

The Admin Building is also taking the current situation seriously, monitoring all the tenants and their clients' health condition.

We promise that we will do our best to maximize your safety and ours, while maintaining our daily routines, which I believe is key to surviving the best in this overwhelming situation. We also ask that you play your part by following the simple steps of maintaining social distance (6 feet / 2 meters), covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue, and washing your hands. Thank you for your cooperation.

Please know that if you prefer telehealth services via phone or any other devices, we are more than happy to do so going forward or at any time in the future. Please do not hesitate to ask.

Of course, if you are not feeling well or have a fever, please do not come to the office but rather let us know so we can conduct a teletherapy session. Please rest assured that we will also not come to the office should we develop a fever and will let you know and make appropriate alternative arrangements with you for a teletherapy session.

Please also know that if there is ever an order for a lockdown in the future, we will have no choice but to use telehealth services for all clients.

Lastly, as you know, your identity and client file are protected by HIPPA privacy Laws. However, in the event that information is requested by appropriate health authorities for the purposes of identifying people who may have been in contact with someone infected with COVID-19, we may possibly be required to provide the minimum necessary to trace contacts. Your file notes and case history would NOT be part of the disclosure. Please see the following link if you wish to see the details of the limited waver granted to health providers.

As always, thank you very much for placing your trust in us to provide you with quality care. We are really proud of what we do, and are determined to continue providing you with our services no matter how the situation evolves.

We hope you, your families, loved ones, and friends all remain safe and healthy through this difficult period.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me or your therapist.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Riichiro Miwa
Dr.Leeanne Marquez
Sharon Hou, AMFT

Dr. Riichiro Miwa Licensed Clinical Psychologist (PSY 21622) / Life Coach

Look! Even the sandtray miniatures' shelf was cleaned! :)

The Keynote Speaker: Self-Care and Stress Management

Last week, I wrote that I was invited to give a workshop at the Victim Advocacy Institute Conference. Coincidentally, I was also invited to be the Keynote Speaker for the Waymakers’ annual All-Staff Training Day yesterday. Because I like them, I was honored to be there to talk with over 100 staff members about Self-Care and Stress Management. Yes, it is an important topic and I care about it a lot. I hope I can post some articles about it here in future.

Anyhow, the audience was great. They responded to my jokes and silly comments and laughed a lot! Getting people to laugh is already a big achievement (particularly for a serious and boring Asian male, right?) and they were attentive with good participation. I thank them for that a lot!

That's the podium! 

Also, it was my very fist time to step inside a Dave and Buster’s. I had no clue that Dave and Buster’s has rooms for conferences and events. Did you?? It was interesting that I made speech at Dave and Buster’s.

A Workshop at Victim Advocacy Institute

Hi there. It has been a while since I made a post… Yes, I am lazy in general, but at this time, I also had to fly back to Japan as my father was sick and passed away… Now I am back on my routine, and I would like to continue to share with you.

Today, I just wanted to share that I was invited to provide a workshop at the Victim Advocacy Institute this last Wednesday. This big conference was presented by the California Crime Victims Assistance Association (CCVAA) and Waymakers to further victim advocates’ education and skill development regarding various kinds of crime, and issues relevant to the field of advocacy in victim services.

I have known Waymakers for years and their great support for victims of crime, such as sexual assaults, and I have always been grateful for what they do. You cannot imagine how hard it is to work in this field, and the staff members are so nice and dedicated! That’s why I was willing to provide 3 hours (!) training for this conference when I was asked to, and it was very rewarding…

If you know anyone who is or becomes a victim of crime, check out their website to see if s/he can receive some support from Waymakers. There are a lot of resources out there that people don’t know about that can be really helpful!

Thank you for the card and for your hard work!! :) 

Frustration and Expectation

Do you feel frustration a lot? If you experience it occasionally, that’s normal and fine, but if you feel it quite frequently, that’s not so healthy. I will talk about the emotion of frustration today.

We feel our basic emotions, such as anger, sadness, joy, and fear, naturally from birth, but frustration is more complicated: When we have some “expectation” of something and this expectation is not met, we get disappointed and experience “frustration.” Without such expectation, we would not have frustration, even if other emotions may be experienced.

We tend to have a lot of expectations of ourselves, our spouse, family, company, others, society, and so on. And the more expectations, the more disappointment and frustration we end up having. What is most important in this picture is to look into our expectations themselves, instead of experiencing frustration and/or frustrating situations.

Our “normal” is not really normal for everyone. It varies between individuals, cultures, and generations. What we think how things should be is not an absolute common belief. Others and society actually rarely satisfy our desires. The important thing is to understand and admit what are reasonable expectations “at this point,” “realistically speaking.”

As a result, there is some sense of “acceptance.” Based on this acceptance of reality, we can make a decision of what to do and how to do. For example, either to promote improvement, give up, avoid, etc.

What’s essential here is to recognize what is under our control, and what is out of our control. If we try to do something beyond our locus of control, the worries and expectation will be unresolved with an outcome of disappointment and exhaustion. Sticking to the realm under our control and doing what we can do is most important.

Excessive and unrealistic expectation is nothing but harmful. It is helpful to reexamine your expectations for yourself, others, and the world.