Psychotherapy: Unity In Diversity

Abstract

The emotional problems associated with African specific problems and those related to westernisation and underdevelopment, pose a great challenge to psychotherapists working in modern Africa. Many of the psychotherapists are cut in-between the western forms of psychotherapy, which in many cases do not properly address and appeal to the needs of African clients, and African traditional forms of Psychotherapy, which apparently belong to the exclusive domain of African traditional and religious faith healers. In this paper, the author presents a way forward in this dilemma. He draws from literature and from his knowledge on the psychotherapeutic activities of African traditional and religious faith healers pre and post colonial days in Africa, the present western oriented psychotherapy practices in Africa and the in-Africa-based psychotherapeutic practices, to arrive at conclusions. He suggests a way forward - a culture-centred psychotherapy form, where the western, the traditional African, and the Christian religious forms of psychotherapy blend, respect, and constantly enrich each other, for the benefit of modern African clients. This is Unity in Diversity in Psychotherapy.

Keywords: Culture-Centred Psychotherapy, Unity in Diversity, Modern Africa.