A COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGIST WITH PASSION AND A NOBLE CAUSE:

My name is John Gacheru. I am a Counselling Psychologist working with poor traumatized teenagers in secondary schools and young adults in colleges and universities in Kenya, East Africa. I hold a Bachelors degree in Counselling Psychology from Kenya Methodist University and a Masters of Arts degree in Counselling studies from the University of Durham-UK. I have over 15 years experience as an eclectic therapist in private practice with a strong Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy orientation.

Our country is facing a mental health crisis emanating from unresolved trauma. The health sector is over burdened with minimal resources as cases of suicide increase daily. Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorders, substance abuse and addictions and Anxiety Disorders are rampant and under diagnosed and under treated. There is a shortage of trained mental health practitioners and limited resources directed towards promotion of mental wellness and prevention of mental illnesses. This calls for modern, innovative and cost-effective interventions. I am seeking funding to continue my mission of promoting mental wellness and treating mental illnesses using psychological interventions among this needy and economically disadvantaged population. I want to buy a mobile truck and convert it into a virtual reality therapy room from where I will offer psycho-therapeutic interventions to the young people in secondary schools, colleges and universities in Kenya.

TRAUMATIC INCIDENCES IN KENYA

In the year 2008 Kenya was rocked by a wave of violence following a highly contested and disputed presidential election. Sadly, thousands of people were killed and millions were displaced from their homes because of their political affiliation. Homes were burned, women were raped, young girls were sexually assaulted, entire families were forcibly displaced and devastated and orphaned children were deeply traumatized by what they witnessed.

There was a huge and never-ending need for counsellors to intervene and offer debriefing sessions, provide safety zones, support the rescuers, comfort the survivors and support the first responders. There was need to help the people come to terms with their loss of limbs, property, livelihood, help them navigate through the grieving process and traumatic incidences they had faced. Yet there were just but a few trained individuals and therefore majority of the traumatized population did not access help. Statistics shows an increase of 58% for suicide cases between 2008 and 2018 with more men completing attempts with most brutal means.

Those children who were three to six-year-olds then are the current day school going teenagers and many secondary schools now report that many of these teens still suffer from nightmares, social anxiety, depression, panic attacks and their school performance and education performance is less than optimal. No wonder since January 2019 to date, there has been a marked increase in incidences of teenage suicide in Kenya and I have a strong feeling that the unresolved childhood trauma they experienced then is responsible for this upsurge now. There has also been a crisis of secondary school students burning their schools and this can also be traced back to symptomatology of unresolved trauma. It is these and many other incidences of trauma around the country that led me to start my outreach psychoeducational and therapeutic events to various secondary schools. Rather than wait in my counselling office, I go out to the schools and offer support and help to those who truly and really need it.

TERROR RELATED TRAUMA

Similarly, since 2010, there has been an increase of terror attacks on Kenyan people by the Somali terrorist group called Al-Shabaab. The incidences were so many that the government of Kenya had to send the Kenya defense forces to Somalia in a bid to prevent the al-Shabaab from crossing the mostly porous Somalia-Kenya border. Again, many people were killed, maimed and devastated by these terror attacks. 

The Garissa university attack is an outstanding example whereby Al-Shabaab terrorists invaded the institution and randomly opened fire killing hundreds of students while maiming others leaving them with lifelong injuries and disabilities. This was followed by the Westgate shopping mall attack by the same Al-Shabaab with similar devastating and traumatizing effect and just recently in 2018 the Dusit hotel terror attack left more families in loss and traumatized. In addition, just last month, the Al-Shabaab abducted two Cuban Doctors who were working in Kenya trying to assist the Kenyan health sector.  The doctors are still held as hostages. It is in such an environment that the few mental health workers in Kenya find ourselves in.

It is evidently true to state that majority of Kenyans are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorders and many more have various other mental illnesses not yet diagnosed and treated. It gets worse when you consider that in a country of over 40 million people, we only have just about 100 psychiatrists!!  Most of these psychiatrists are based in Nairobi city whereas the majority of Kenyans dwell in the peri-urban and rural areas. The Kenyan health sector is crumbling under a heavy disease burden and the few doctors and nurses available are constantly on strikes and go-slow decrying poor pay and unfit working conditions.

HOW I DO IT AT THE SCHOOLS

Although I am in private practice, I recognize that the majority of those who really need my help and therapeutic interventions are not able to afford a professional fee. For your information, a big portion of the Kenyan population is in dire poverty with many families living on less than a dollar a day. These teenagers and their families who need psychological help cannot afford to pay for a therapeutic session. And unlike in the developed nations, the few insurance companies that exist in Kenya do not pay for mental health conditions unless they are part of a chronic comorbid diagnosis from a physician. In this regard, with the permission of the school administration, I move from school to school educating school going youths (teenagers) on how to manage stress, overcome depression, process psycho-trauma and cultivate general well-being. I am not located in one particular school but rather move from school to school. I work with a small team of volunteers’ majority being students of counselling psychology with me being the team leader.

Most secondary schools in Kenya that I visit have an average of 500 students in form one to form four aged between 15 years and 18 years old. When I visit a school, the form one and form two students (equivalent of grade 10 and 11 in the USA) are grouped together while the form threes (grade 12 onwards) and form fours are grouped together. The students are invited into the school auditorium-usually the school dining hall.

I offer a general psycho-educational talk addressing various topics ranging from self-awareness, stress management, sexuality, emotional intelligence, career choices, focus and motivation, self-esteem and self-confidence, emotional regulation and anger management etc. I use a youth friendly approach in my talk and utilize audio visual aids like Public address system and LCD projector. To make it fun I utilize dance and music to help make the sessions less formal.

A psychoeducational talk last for approximately 2 hours. I encourage my team to be approachable and have a friendly demeanor. I encourage questions and answer session at the end of the talk.  often, the guidance and counselling teacher will have identified a number of students prior to my arrival who he/she deem would benefit from a one on one session with me. It is these more/seriously affected students that are referred to me that I spend a little more time in brief solution focused therapy. Each individual one-on-one session lasts approximately 30 minutes.

Their issues rage from anxiety disorder, depression, insomnia, addictions, oppositional defiance disorder and attention deficit disorders. Some schools have special needs learners and differently-abled students too. It is these students that are struggling with psychological difficulties that I feel would greatly benefit from the new emerging Virtual Reality therapy modality.

PLEASE DONATE

If you and other well-wishers could donate funds to this noble cause, I would buy a mobile truck, convert it into a virtual reality therapy room from where school going teenagers would access psychological help and treatment when I visit their schools. I would also purchase 50 standalone VR headsets, accompanying gear and applications and my interventions would be more therapeutic. Clinical evidence has shown that VR has the capacity to help students expand their imagination, inspire their desire to learn science, explore a different kind of world, escape their immediate reality and be teleported to a world of unlimited possibilities.

I believe that with the assistance of existing VR infrastructure, VR holds the key to inspiring a new generation of Kenyan learners as they therapeutically overcome their debilitating psycho-trauma and interact with a world where they confront their fears, overcome depression, navigate through stress and anxiety inducing stimuli and hopefully embrace new exciting possibilities. Together let us seize this opportunity and be the first to introduce such life-changing technology to Africa. What a privilege!!

A RECENT BBC FEATURE REPORT ON INCIDENCES OF SUICIDE AMONG KENYAN MALES HELPS TO ILLUMINATE ON THE EXTENT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS THE KENYAN POPULATION HAS AND HOW BADLY INNOVATIVE COST EFFECTIVE MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTIONS ARE NEEDED IN KENYA.

HELP ME DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS SITUATION BY DONATING GENEROUSLY.

https://youtu.be/NClMdqEIUDM