WCP-AC was inaugurated during the 1st World Congress on Psychotherapy in 1996 in Vienna, Austria. The objective of WCP (AC) is, to promote Psychotherapy and Counseling in Africa by

1. Organising conferences on Psychotherapy in Africa
2. Publishing books in the area of Psychotherapy in Africa
3. And developing training programmes on psychotherapy in Africa.
   

The African chapter of the World Council for Psychotherapy which started in 1996, is to promote psychotherapy on the African Continent through organizing conference training, research publication to mention but a few. The first conference on the World Council on Psychotherapy African Chapter Conference was held at Makerere University Kampala Uganda, the old and prestigious university in East and Central Africa.
The World Council for Psychotherapy (African Chapter (AC)) is a group of African psychotherapist/psychologists with interests in African psychotherapy practice, studies, and development, as well as that of those in Disapora.

1. Psychotherapy in Africa (First Investigations) 1996. 219 pages.
2. African traditional healing: Psycho-therapeutic investigation (1997). 262 pages
3. In quest for psychotherapy for modern Africa, 1998. 321 pages.
4. Cross-culture Dialogue on Psychotherapy in Africa (1999). 374 pages.
5. Psychotherapy & African Reality. 2000. 203 pages.
6. Contributions to psychotherapy in Africa. 2003. 226 pages.
7. Mental health & psychotherapy in Africa. 2005. 511 pages
8. Trauma and Psychotherapy in Africa. 2009. 297 pages.

Invitation

It's my pleasure to invite you to attend the WCP World Regional Congress of Psychotherapy, the 7th World Coucil  For Psychotherapy African Chapter in Kenya at Bondo University College from 9th - 11th November, 2012.This conference is an opportunity for psychotherapists coming from Africa, Europe and Middle East to meet and share ideas about their practice and experience around the main program or the various topics.

The congress is organised under the auspices of WCP (World Council for Psychotherapy) and in collaboration with the EAP (European Association Of Psychotherapy)

The invited speakers are well known around the world and the social events are very interesting.

                              Psychotherapy past present and future

HIV and AIDS

HIV and AIDS pandemic is not a new thing to anybody here. It is a scourge that has brought a lot of miseries for many families and has inflicted a lot of emotional and psychosocial injuries to many survivors. It has created a degree of emotional fragility in a large part of the population. However, Africa  has been successful in reversing the trend of the disease, mainly out of behavior change strategies adopted and the role counseling and psychosocial care & support played in restoring hope and mitigating reckless lifestyles of our people. Counseling, for instance, has given hope to those affected/infected by the disease. Counselors play a leading role in the restoration of hope, behavior change, and psychosocial support to those affected/infected by the disease.


Terrorism, War and Natural Disasters

Terrorism, war, natural disasters, including accidental occurrences, like lightening striking, floods, storms, fire and displacement continue to be part of life and when they happen, constrain our people’s resources to cope and remain hopeful and they leave behind emotional and mental scars that continue to haunt the population for a longer period of time, if no interventions are put in place to address them. Counsellors and psychotherapists become very useful in addressing these challenges. Counsellor’s emphases are on values, trauma management, behaviour modification, cognition reconfiguration, formation of new attachments, acceptance of loss, disaster preparedness, etc.

Social, Emotional and Spiritual Health

• In the past; chiefs, elders, aunties and uncles played very valuable role in resolving social issues affecting the lives of individuals within a society. This system has been weakened by modernization and adopting to foreign ways of life and also the change in economic and social activities of our people. The only viable replacement of these eroded functions is conventional counseling, psychotherapy and guidance services, whose skills are enhanced and also obtained through conventional training.

• We are all appalled by the collapse of the social and moral standards, the collapse of the family values; seen in breakages of marriages, child neglect and maltreatment, poor parental styles, child sacrifice and disintegration of our good traditional and cultural values. Where are the aunties/or and elders ,Where are the uncles? If they are not there, psychologists priests pastors and guidance counselors  are available and THE WORLD COUNCIL FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY –AFRICAN CHAPTER WCP-AC is here to deliberate on how to take up these roles and responsibilities!

• People will always need shoulders to lean on in times of difficulties and will always feel better if they received psychological and social support they need.

Health and Medical Practice

 In  medicine, doctors believe that almost 50% of cases of illnesses are psychological or psychologically triggered. Therefore a counseling approach to the practice and procedure of general medicine has become conventional and a standard now. Doctors give placebos to those who are psychologically sick and have strong believe that they would only feel better after taking medicine or after receiving an injection! This underscores the importance of psychological wellbeing to healthy living, which counselling can facilitate, in contemporary society.

Crime Prevention and Character Education

Criminal  psychologists, psychopathologists, police, judges, behaviour therapists and prisons officers all tell that criminal tendencies, deviant behaviours or perversions and crime committal incidences are all associated with physical and psychological abuses individuals suffered in their childhood or at most, during their critical formative age. They too tell that such individuals can be helped to come out of such tendencies, if a counseling and psychotherapy approach is used during the course of their rehabilitation and reintegration into community.

Dear colleagues, you can therefore see how PSYCHOTHERAPY IN THE AFRICAN CONTEXT IS A  relevant profession to nation building. It is so relevant to stability and peace and security agenda of the Governments in the African continent of and therefore you have a critical role to play in building a stable African  society; in ensuring that our people children  youth and adults  grow up into respectable citizens to themselves and the society in which they belong.



Vice president for Africa:
Pr/Dr. Edward Bantu, PhD
Head, Department of Special Needs Education,Guidance and Counceling Psychology
Bondo University College, Kenya.