By Fr Mike Umoh
Lux Terra Leadership Foundation has launched the Nigeria Campus of its Psycho-Spiritual Institute (PSI), marking a significant milestone in addressing the country’s mental health challenges. Affiliated with Veritas University, Abuja, the Institute’s two postgraduate programmes have received full accreditation from the National Universities Commission, namely, the Post Graduate Diploma in Psycho-Spiritual Trauma Healing and the Master’s Degree in Psycho-Spiritual Therapy.
This development is timely, considering Nigeria’s rising mental health concerns, including depression, addictive disorders, psycho-trauma and post-traumatic stress disorders, aggravated in recent times by widespread political tension, social insecurity, and acute economic distress. According to Rev. Fr. George Ehusani, Executive Director of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, “The establishment of this campus is an urgent imperative, given the escalating mental health challenges in Nigeria. We are committed to providing holistic, integrated training that combines modern psychotherapy with the rich resources of our faith traditions, and also take into cognisance our peculiar African socio-historical and cultural realities.”
It would be recalled that the Kenyan Campus has, between 2013 and now, produced 9 sets of master’s degree graduates in Psycho-Spiritual Therapy, from 26 different African countries. The Nigeria Campus has already enrolled its first set of students, with 13 pursuing the Master’s degree and 33 enrolled in the Post Graduate Diploma programme. “The training dynamics at PSI will place great premium on the healing, wholesome personality integration and transformation of the trainee therapists themselves, in such a manner that upon graduation, they can function effectively as ‘healed healers,’” Fr. Ehusani emphasised.
The programmes are aimed at equipping professionals and volunteers with the required skills to provide counselling support and facilitate healing and growth to persons in various settings, including hospitals and hospices, drug rehabilitation centres, correctional centres, schools and colleges, religious formation houses, as well as in religious congregations.
The Vice Chancellor of Veritas University, Abuja, Rev. Fr. Prof. Hyacinth Ichoku, applauded the National Universities Commission for accrediting the programmes, describing them as truly novel. He said the academic resources of the Institute are of the highest standards, and that Veritas is proud to be affiliated with the Institute. Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede, former Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (who is a newly registered PGD student of the Institute), praised the initiative, saying, “it is a significant step forward in addressing Nigeria’s mental health gaps. The integration of psycho-spiritual approaches will provide more effective solutions for our unique challenges.”
Among others present at the occasion which held at the Lux Terra complex in Abuja on Wednesday October 16, 2024, were Mrs. Bridget Itsueli, member of the Board of Trustees of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, and her husband, Dr. Imo Itsueli, Bishop Duke Akamisoko of the Anglican diocese of Kubwa, Prof. Titus Ibekwe, Provost, College of Health Sciences, University of Abuja, Msgr. Michael Ekpenyong, former Secretary General, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, as well as 43 pioneering students of the Abuja campus of the Institute, made up 13 M.A. and 33 PGD candidates.
