Ignorance leading Kenyans to shun counselling

By Nicholas Kipchumba

Frequent strikes in schools, companies, work place stress and unpredictable tragedies have revealed a dire shortage of professional counsellors’ aid to mitigate on pressures by failed parental counselling.

Many such incidents have been blamed on rapidly increasing life stress.

Every institution in Kenya, in one way or another, has undoubtedly felt the pinch. Even members of the police and the military are not spared.

Susan Gitau, is a practising counsellor and member of the Kenya Counselling Association (KCA). She is also a lecturer at the African Nazarene University. She says parenting styles are majorly to blame for many of social ills that have hit the society.

 “The conduct of our opinion leaders also has hit society hard,” she adds.

 In November 2010, an Administration Police officer went on a shooting spree killing ten people and injuring dozens in Siakago. Among the dead were two of his colleagues.

According to the KCA Secretary General, Patrick Madanda, Kenya Counselling Association has only about 2,000 registered counsellors. Approximately 18,000 others are out in the field, making a rough total of 20,000. This, therefore, means there is only one counsellor for every 2,000 clients. 

Living with AIDS

According to psychologist and counsellor Kimani Githongo, the Kenya Psychologists Association,  has a membership of about 50 while that of the Kenya Guidance Counselling and Psychologist Association stands at only 150.  If these figures are anything to go by, then Florence Muthoni is not wrong when she says she hardly finds time to rest and spend with her family.

She is a volunteer counsellor with a Community Based Organisation (CBO) in Kahawa West, the Pope John the XXIII. She is also a trainer with the Kenya Association of Professional counsellors (KAPC)  

In the CBO alone, Ms Muthoni deals with more than 80 people living with HIV/AIDS. The mother of two says a break from the CBO is an engagement elsewhere to help facilitate healing process of other persons dealing with everyday problems if she is not engaged in training sessions.

“Although I enjoy the job, it is not easy. This is a calling for me,” she says.

She says papers are not enough to qualify as a counsellor.

“Although academic and professional papers are needed to qualify to be a counsellor or psychologist, the calling and passion is dovetailed with desire to know and help other people first,” she says.   

Mr Patrick Madanda says the Kenyan society has not yet understood the role of psychologists and remains cynical.

“Though it is required in all stages of life, a lot of our learning institutions have not embraced counselling services fully as they feel such services should come from the Government,” he says.

Mr Madanda observes that though counsellors are overwhelmed in their service, matters could be worse if all Kenyans in need of their services were to throng to the counsellors’ clinics.

He says the number of people still ignorant of counselling services far outstrips those who are aware of its benefits.

Temptations

The secretary general believes Kenya would have its hospital and clinics expenditures greatly reduced if the Government was to fully embrace the services of this sidelined profession.

However, like the church which has of late been on the spotlight, guiding and counselling can also be invaded by selfish persons.

To tame this, the Association has put in place measures that would help supervise and control activities of counsellors.

“You cannot just emerge from nowhere and expect to be registered,” Mr Madanda says.

He echoes Ms Muthoni and adds that one needs to do personal therapy before joining the guidance and counseling profession.

Because counsellors are human beings and vulnerable, the KCA offers supervision counselling which help overwhelmed counsellors.

Madanda says many counsellors can be tempted to listen to their emotional feelings and eventually taking the professional counselling relationships into emotional love.

“Young counsellors are the greatest victims of this. They might find themselves engaged in sexual relationships when a client takes advantage of them,” the counsellor who is a father says.

“In the end, it is apparent that the more the challenge of fixing the numbers of professional counsellors, the greater the challenge of finding true ones,” Mr Madanda puts it as he rushes to attend to clients he has delayed while being interviewed.