Role of counsellors is important - Rev. Darku

Daily Graphic May - 29 - 2016 , 12:54

In a fast-paced society where the average working person comes under stress daily and where marriages land on rocks at the least misunderstanding, the role of the counsellor has a calming effect on young professionals and married couples.

The Executive Director, Africa of Christ For All Nations (CFAN), Reverend John Kwesi Darku, who made the observation, said the role of professional counsellors was very significant in mending hearts and also bringing relief and healing to the troubled mind.

“It is not only advisable but also desirable for adults faced with difficult life choices or going through turbulence in marriage and on the job to seek counselling,” he said, adding that it was rather the delay in obtaining professional counsel that complicated psycho-social problems in the society.

Concerns

Rev. Darku, who was speaking at the inauguration of Holistic Care Consult, a bureau of professional counsellors at Dansoman in Accra, however, expressed concern over the fact that while the role of the counsellor itself had been misunderstood, the situation had been worsened by the existence of quacks or people with very little training.

“Unfortunately the latter includes pastors and prophets in our churches. With little or no training, they tend to think that a year in Bible school, with a few weeks’ course in counselling, qualifies a pastor to do serious counselling. That is wrong. Not every man or woman of God is automatically a professional counsellor. The situation gets even more dangerous when the issues brought before them are very complex, indeed, career or life threatening, with mental implications,” he observed.

Rev Darku added that, “I will not be asking too much if I insist that a campaign should be waged in this country making the terrain too hot for unqualified counsellors to operate. They are a danger to society.”

Advice

He congratulated the management of Holistic Care Consult on their initiave and advised that they admitted highly skilled professionals with track record in the field.

The Executive Director of Holistic Care Consult, Apostle James Kofi Abbrey, said the consultancy, in partnership with International Christian ministries, sought to bring time-tested leadership principles and practices into local churches and the corporate world.