By Gabriel Chy Alonta
Following the passage and assent to the Counselling Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria Act by President Muhammadu Buhari on July 27, 2022, the leadership of Counselling Association of Nigeria (CASSON), has reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining professionalism and ethical conducts in providing counselling services across the country.
This is even as the association urged government and other stakeholders to embrace the Counselling Act in a bid to improve psychological well-being and mental health of individuals.
Prof. Elizabeth Egbochuku
The National President of CASSON, Prof. Elizabeth Egbochuku, who gave this assurance in a statement made available to newsmen, said the ultimate aim of counselling was to assist clients make their own choices, reach their own decisions and act upon them accordingly.
According to Prof. Egbochuku, the Counselling Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria Act would enable the conduct of qualifying examinations, regulating the counselling profession, and determining standard of knowledge and skill required of persons seeking to become members of the counselling profession in Nigeria.
Speaking on the role of counsellors, the national president said, “Counselling has been centrifugally a school-based activity, helping learners to actualize their academic potentials and make appropriate career decisions. These goals remain central to the core professional focus of CASSON”.
Rev. Sr. Prof. Susan Obineli
Reacting to the passage of the Act, Anambra State CASSON chairperson, Rev. Sr. Prof. Susan Obineli, expressed delight that the establishment and passage of the CASSON Act 2022 would usher in the needed changes as regards professional counselling in Nigeria, adding that the development would also increase the number of student-applicants for counselling at the university level.
Obineli, who is a professor of clinical counselling, said, “CASSON can now stand strong and compete favourably with other professionals such as medical doctors, lawyers, engineers, and so on.
“The passage of the Act is apt and of monumental importance, because the Act would make counselling profession more robust to take its pride of place among the comity of professional bodies.
“With the help of professional counsellors in society, crimes, depression, kidnapping, rape and many other undesirable behaviours would be reduced to the barest minimum. So, the CASSON Act will help counsellors in Nigeria to connect to other licenced counsellors in the world”, she enthused.
CASSON logo
Orient Daily reports that the Act was passed 26-years after the Association got its 1st Certificate of Registration on April 22, 1996. The Counselling Association of Nigeria was founded on November 15, 1975, to ensure human psychological growth and development, and advancement of the counselling profession. The Association is structured into Icons, Fellows, Associate Fellows, Associate members, Honorary members, Full-time members, and student membership, and cuts across all the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).