Too many people in Nigeria today do not know the importance of guidance and counseling. Some have never heard of it, others think it is for schools only, and others still think it has no use at all.
However, guidance and counseling play an important role in the total well-being of the citizens of any nation. In this article, I have highlighted 15 benefits or importance of guidance and counseling in Nigeria.
See What Is Guidance and Counseling? (Overview, Scope, and Types)
Importance of Guidance and Counselling in Nigeria
1. To help citizens overcome psychological and mental health issues
We are surrounded today by many psychological and mental health issues that we aren’t paying enough attention to yet. Depression, PTSD, mental disorders, low self-esteem, anxieties of all sorts, loneliness, and increased stress levels, to mention a few.
Unfortunately, medicine and doctors do not possess the cure for these issues since they are concerned with the physiological part of the body.
If Nigerians must remain healthy, based on the WHO’s definition of health, counseling and therapy are highly needed to cater to mental, psychological, and emotional well-being.
2. To reduce cases of divorce and broken homes
The cases of divorce and broken homes we see today are only on the rise. While our parents didn’t have counselors and still had fewer cases of divorce, societies have changed now and gender roles are more confusing now than ever.
Counselors can play an important role in helping individuals choose the right spouse, manage family conflicts, and navigate through the changes that happen in the family by helping both parties gain an understanding of themselves.
3. To help employees cope with work stress and demand
The ever-changing world of work is having great negative effects on our citizens and guidance and counselling can help. Several researches have shown that Mondays are the days with the highest cases of suicides.
There is, therefore, the need for guidance and counseling in Nigeria to help individuals cope with the stress and emotional/psychological demands the workplace is bringing on them.
4. To help clients choose careers that best suit their personality and potential
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This is where guidance and counseling started in Nigeria. While there are other roles counselors play in our society, career guidance is still an important aspect of the profession.
As a counselor, I meet several people every month who don’t know which career to choose or how to navigate through the one they are currently in, and I know it is an issue.
I see the great satisfaction and significant life upgrades people have whenever they are established in satisfying careers.
5. To help clients make informed decisions about their lives
Counselors do not give advice or instructions. All they simply do is help their clients understand themselves and the situations they are in so they can make informed decisions.
This aspect of the services of counselors makes them of benefit to every single person in Nigeria.
Wouldn’t you appreciate a situation where you can weigh all the options before you and make the best choices? If you do, then you acknowledge the need for counselors in Nigeria.
6. To assist victims of traumatic experiences
Victims of traumatic experiences like sexual and domestic abuse, war, or natural disasters mostly tend to live throughout their lives with negative memories but it doesn’t have to be so.
Counselors have proven to be important in situations like this, where they can help the victims overcome the effect the traumatic experiences have on them, rise above the stigma, get reinstated into normal lives with others, and see themselves in a new light.
7. To assist the disabled and handicapped
Similar to victims of traumatic experiences are people living with disabilities. For them, life is not naturally normal as they have to battle with extra difficulties that other people don’t face.
People living with disabilities, however, can live optimal lives if they receive assistance that will help them see their abilities, provide emotional support for them, teach them coping mechanisms, and provide community and a sense of belongingness for them. This is another role counselors can play.
8. To help modify deviant and maladaptive behaviors
Behavior modification is a systematic process and does not always answer to the harsh treatments Nigerian parents give their children. Counselors are professionals in behavior modification.
If counselors are embraced in society today and become part of every institution (family, school, religious bodies, workplace), there will be reduced cases of social vices.
9. Help make academic programs more wholistic
If our schools must fulfill their roles of developing the entire being of our children, then counseling cannot be sidelined. Guidance and counseling should be part of the educational system right from elementary school to the tertiary level.
To sideline counseling from schools is to openly state that schools are only concerned with the academic development of the children.
Related: 15 Importance of Guidance and Counseling in Education
10. Rehabilitation and correction
Prisons and correctional centers mostly do not play their roles as many return from these places with new bad behaviors. This shows the bad approach correctional centers take in modifying behaviors.
Counsellors therefore are beneficial in these environments for them to truly be rehabilitation centres.
Related: 9 Places To Get Counselling and Therapy Jobs in Nigeria Today
11. To assist citizens in adapting to societal and technological changes
Adapting to change is a difficult situation that many struggle to cope with. From changes in the family, changes in the environment, changes in societal values, and technological changes, counselors can help citizens adapt better.
One recent technological development is the use of virtual and augmented reality comes with changes that will leave many unstable and unable to balance their virtual lives with their actual lives.
12. To help workers have a greater work-life balance
It is very common to see people who devote all of their time and energy to their careers that neglect their families, have no social lives, deny themselves of rest and ultimately shorten their lives.
This creates a need that counselors can fulfill. Counseling can assist people in balancing their careers with every other aspect of their lives.
13. To help clients maximize their potential
Many limitations stop people from chasing their dreams and becoming all they can become. These limitations include a lack of adequate understanding, an unfavorable environment, fear, and so on.
Counselors can assist them, however, in navigating through these limitations and living their best lives.
14. To play mediatory roles or provide alternative dispute resolutions
This is first applicable to marriages but it extends beyond that.
Rather than ending in diverse or court cases, counselors can provide some sort of alternative dispute resolution between two disagreeing parties by helping them see the roles each of them is playing that is keeping the conflict alive.
15. To alleviate the rise of social threats in schools
Cases of bullying (and cultism) in schools are beginning to gain more light. If schools have more counselors, the counselors can help reduce these cases by noticing changes in students’ behavior and investigating further.
The presence of counselors will also provide students with a “friend” they can easily talk to and relate their issues with, unlike other teachers who are strict or might not listen.
See 15 Importance of Guidance & Counseling To Teachers & Teacher Training
Other roles counselors can play in Nigerian society are to help reduce the number of suicide cases, to help eliminate toxic work environments, to help children with learning disabilities get education, and many others.
The Need for Guidance and Counselling in Nigeria
We have been able to see so far that embracing guidance and counseling in every quarter of the nation is of utmost importance and the benefits far outweigh the investment.
Guidance and counseling in Nigeria will help reduce vices and deviance in society, help citizens maximize their potential, help them adapt to societal and environmental changes, reduce cases of suicides, divorce, and broken homes, and assist those with disabilities of all sorts in living normal lives.