The Road to My First Psychosomatic Clinic Visit (1)

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A book I read for the first time five years ago that made me cry uncontrollably.

Searching for 'psychosomatic clinics' in the prefecture on Google Maps and calling every single one to inquire about appointments was...

Back in July, when I was suffering from insomnia. I was exhausted at work.

That was over a month ago. Among them, there was a clinic that said they could offer the earliest initial appointment, so I took several trains to get there.

I arrived at the reception an hour and a half before my appointment. I was handed five or six pages of intake forms.

Thanks to the notes I had prepared and summarized in my previous articles (1) through (5), both the filling out of the forms and the consultation went smoothly.

Furthermore, I was handed a sheet of A4 paper and a pencil, with the instruction, 'Please draw a tree with fruit on it.' I sketched it across the whole page, recalling memories from when I used to harvest mandarin oranges.

There were about ten people, including myself, sitting in the waiting room, and the hour-and-a-half wait felt shorter than I expected.

'Ichi-san.'

The first hurdle was a female doctor in her 30s. While looking at my intake forms,

she asked me questions in a soft, reassuring atmosphere and tone.

It lasted about 15 minutes.

After that, I returned to the waiting room.

The final hurdle was the clinic director. While comparing the female doctor's notes with my intake forms, he spoke in a similarly calm and reassuring tone.

'So, all five people resigned suddenly due to interpersonal relationships... is that right?'

And then, he made this suggestion.

'How about changing jobs?'

'Yes. I submitted a transfer request in June, but I haven't heard anything from Deputy Manager Tanuki, so I've half-given up and am currently looking for something on my own.'