Kenichi Ishimaru

Kenichi Ishimaru, born in 1951, was a disciple of Osho. His spiritual name is Swami Anand Dharma. He created Zen Counseling approach based on the teachings of Osho and Zen in the year 2000. He is a Graduate of Literature in Philosophy from Kyoto.

While teaching Kinesiology, Kenichi keenly felt the importance of being able to listen to a client without any judgement. He invented an effective counseling method based on this principle. In this method a counsellor does not give any advice to the client. The counselor trusts that the client himself is a Buddha and has the answer within himself already.

In 1995 he began experimenting in order to have a systematic method that would make it possible for everybody to learn and use it. And this came to completion around 2000. In 2005, Kenichi was invited to teach this method at the OSHO International Meditation Resort in Pune, India. He then named it “Zen Counseling”.

Kenichi has been teaching Zen Counseling in Japan and other Asian countries including India, China as well as Western countries including Germany, Switzerland, Russia and the United States.

The International Zen Counseling Association was established in 2018 in Japan to spread Zen Counseling to the world and to create a platform for Zen Counselors to share and update their knowledge.

Mr. Kenichi Ishimaru is
– President, International Zen Counseling Association, Japan
– Founder & Creator of Zen Counseling
– Founder of Japan Kinesiology General Institute, Tokyo
– Professor of Face Reading in Japan
– Winner of the UN International Peace Award from the Society for Promotion of Japanese Culture in June 2025