ONLINE EVENT

Breaking the Silence:
A Conversation with Kazuki Takizawa and Dr. Miwa Hitsumoto 

Photo: Courtesy of KT Glassworks

Date & Time
Thursday, August 19, 2021 
7 PM (PDT)

Click here to watch

Join us for a conversation about mental health and the benefits of making art with exhibiting Los Angeles-based glass artist Kazuki Takizawa, and Dr. Miwa Hitsumoto, Executive and Clinical Director of the Center for Japanese Mental Health. Learn about how Kazuki uses his artistic practice as a vehicle to speak out and educate about mental health, and as a personal therapeutic process. Also, we will hear from Dr. Hitsumoto who will explain how creative activities positively benefit our mental health and well-being. The conversation will be moderated by Andres Payan Estrada, Curator of Public Engagement at the Craft Contemporary.  
 
This program is organized in collaboration with Craft Contemporary.  

About speakers:

 Kazuki Takizawa - As an artist who lives with bipolar disorder, Kazuki Takizawa uses glass as a means to explore his inner reality and destigmatize mental illness. In an aim to give the invisible shape, Takizawa crafts elaborate vessels and installations, each with a unique story. Universally rooted in a dialogue around mental health, his series examine broad themes such as attaining minimalism among chaos as well as personal narratives around family, and his individual challenges. Takizawa has travelled to numerous communities in and outside the US to share his work and act as an advocate for mental illness. His practice offers an uncommon and inclusive space to increase awareness and start a conversation. Takizawa is a Japanese glass artist based in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a BFA in glass art in 2010 and currently owns and runs KT Glassworks. 

Miwa Hitsumoto Ph.D., LMFT is arguably the most experienced psychotherapist in or outside Japan regarding Japanese multi-ethnic and cross-cultural counseling, serving clients in the Greater Los Angeles area as well as other states and countries where there are sizeable Japanese communities.  In private practice since 2004, Dr. Hitsumoto has extensive experience and expertise in the treatment of trauma, depression, anxiety, addiction, domestic violence, interpersonal relationship issues, and other psychological conditions and disorders.  As the executive and clinical director for the nonprofit organization, Center for Japanese Mental Health, she shares its mission to improve access to and quality of mental health care available to Japanese everywhere, particularly for those Japanese living and working outside Japan.  As a recognized expert in her field, Dr. Hitsumoto has appeared as a guest speaker for Japanese public radio and NAMI, consulted for Japanese mental health and disaster relief agencies, and facilitated numerous media inquiries from international psychological publications and news organizations.  Prior to practicing clinical psychology as a psychotherapist, Dr. Hitsumoto worked in Japan as a software engineer and marketing manager for large international corporations.  Dr. Hitsumoto earned her Ph.D. in Theology, Christian Counseling from Ryokan University, and her Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology and Master of Science in Applied Computer Science from Azusa Pacific University.