By Leonard Okachie
The Association of Professional Counsellors in Nigeria (APROCON) has urged government at all levels to establish functional, well-equipped counselling centres in schools across the nation.
The association also called on counsellor educators to provide rich theoretical and practical training to students to adequately equip them to deliver professional counselling services.
The APROCON President, Prof. Osorochi Obi, made this known in her address at the opening ceremony of the 9th Annual International Conference of APROCON on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the conference held at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike(MOUAU), Abia is “Counselling and Conflict Resolution.”
Obi, who disclosed that it was the association’s first international conference, said that effective conflict resolution was vital for national unity.
The president said that the five-day conference would delve into transformative counselling practices for conflict resolution, emphasising mediation, arbitration and alternative conflict resolution.
She advised members to equip themselves to adapt in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), saying “We must strike a balance where technology supports, not supplant our mission.”
Obi, a lecturer at MOUAU, explained that there were ongoing efforts to ensure that APROCON Bill was passed and assented to.
According to her, the bill once enacted, will provide a regulatory framework, establish professional standards, and enable counsellors to operate legally in private practice.
Declaring the conference open, the Vice-Chancellor of MOUAU, Prof. Maduebibisi Iwe, charged APROCON to lead the change in building a national framework for preventive counselling and conflict transformation.
He emphasised on a framework that is inclusive, data-driven, community-rooted and policy-relevant.
Iwe urged the association to develop strategies that could be adopted by the ministries of education, women affairs and others, to address bullying, cultism school violence, domestic abuse, marital breakdown among others.
“You have the tools.You have the training.You have the mandate.What remains is the collective will to scale your expertise from the counselling room to the policy room,” Iwe said.
In a keynote address, Dr Okey Nworgu, Regional Representative, Institute of Global Peace and Conflict Management, Abuja, urged the association to take counselling beyond the school environment.
Nworgu in his thought-provoking speech, advised them to go for evidence-based counselling, saying that everyone in the country needed counselling because of the prevailing circumstance.
NAN further reports that the opening ceremony featured conferment of awards, paper presentation, goodwill messages, cultural display and others.(NAN)
