MEDIA UNVEILING
INSTITUTE OF COUNSELING IN NIGERIA: THE FIRST COUNSELING INSTITUTE IN AFRICA
DATE: 8TH JULY 2019
TIME: 10AM
VENUE: THE INSTITUTE OF COUNSELING IN NIGERIA 10 SUMBO JIBOWU STREET OFF RIBADU ROAD, OFF AWOLOWO ROAD IKOYI LAGOS.
PROVOST MEDIA SPEECH/ PRESS STATEMENT
INSTITUTE OF COUNSELING IN NIGERIA: SOLVING THE PUZZLE OF PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING IN NIGERIA
On behalf of management and entire staff of the Institute of Counselling in Nigeria, I welcome you all to this epoch-making event.
For us to fully appreciate the vacuum this institute seeks to fill in the our society, I would like to share a short story with you…..
She knelt down in front of her parent pleading not to be allowed to go back to her husband’s house, she pleaded as if the husband is a monster that will slaughter her at any slight opportunity. The father yelled at her, ‘keep quiet’, we will invite both families and this will be resolved…. She went back to her marriage after the so called settlement meeting, the husband family has pleaded and he has vowed never to lay his hands on her again…. Three months later, they brought her corpse to her father’s house, the husband killed her!
This is a case of an abusive husband…. But this scenario is playing out in almost every sector of our society today: Civilization has eroded cultural values, parental schedules has left no room for family times, crime has taken over the street and therefore gives no room for children to be “street wise”, women are now more aware of their sexual, needs leaving the average african husband with the headache of how to satisfy his wife’s sexual needs, information is moving at the speed of time and even your teenager could be more aware than you do now. Life is on a very fast lane giving individuals more choices; unfortunately, the more choices people are open to, the more confused they get.
The problem with Africans is that we have left the Cultural values that use to shape us in the name of civilization(this might be inevitable anyway), sadly, we copied the western culture without providing the necessary cushion effect. The dead woman could have been saved, only if we understand that there’s a psychological undertone to being abusive, a bad marriage could be savaged if we learn to talk to marriage counselors, sexual issues could be resolved if we cultivate the habit of talking to sex therapist, we could fill the loopholes of busy schedule only if parents understand the need for children and adolescent counselors. A grieving individual can move past his grief if there are well trained grief and bereavement counselors, addicts could be helped if there are addiction counselors and the list is endless…..
According to report in 2017, 10,000 girls are sexually assaulted, raped daily in Nigeria. Another report says, marital separation rates in 2018 saw a 14% increase across the whole population. In Nigeria, one in seven persons aged 15-64 years had used a drug (other than tobacco and alcohol) in the past year. Nigerians used to be termed the happiest people on earth, but we are currently ranked 85th in the world.
It can no longer be business as usual, we cant keep mounting pressures on our spiritual leaders as if they are superhuman. Your pastor is not a sex therapist, your Alfa is not a trained grief and bereavement counselor, your mother in Israel is not an addiction counselor neither is your spiritual father a child and adolescent counselor.
Institute of Counseling was carefully created after noticing these massive vacuum in our society. Every individual wanting to go through the journey of self discovery needs the institute, Companies that need to get the best from their employees need the institute (HR has gone beyond the old norm), churches that want happy and productive members needs the institute and educational organizations that really want to thrive cannot do without the institute. Government organizations, public parastatals and institutions need the institute to achieve the dream of a greater Society.
Every individual passionate about humanity can now take a breath of fresh air, as they no longer have to travel overseas to get certified in specialized fields of counseling and psychotherapy.
According to Carl Rogers, people are rational beings who possess within themselves the capacity for truth and goodness. Meanwhile, we make choices based on our experiences, beliefs, and biases, those choices are unique to us and made without an objective form of truth, because there is no such thing as a singular reality. There is only the reality that each of us experiences.
Rogers held the belief that the ideal state for any human being is to be in a state of becoming, to be always striving to become a fully functioning person. This can only be achieved when individuals are allowed to choose for themselves, they have their freedom and therefore their responsibility thrust upon them.
This is the highest good; for the individual to find his or her own unique meaning for their own life, their own unique vocation, be ready to defend their choices and take responsibility for the consequences of the choices we make.
Counseling is the new generational skill for optimal performance and a fulfilling destiny. This is proper human development, this is ‘true becoming’, this is the solution to self discovery, an answer to a fully functioning and sane society….
This is what Institute of Counseling has come to offer.
DR TOLULOPE OKO-IGAIRE
PROVOST
www.instituteofcounselingng.org
+2349094812983
