Counselling should be introduced as a subject in secondary schools, Kenya Counselling and Psychologist Association has suggested.
KCPA chairperson Prof Catherine Gachutha and board member Rose Gathii said this would ensure everyone has counselling skills when they complete basic education.
The two said imparting the knowledge to learners would provide badly needed basic counselling services as most Kenyans have mental challenges that can only be understood through psychological skills.
They spoke during the launch of a counselling programme at Chinga Boys High School in Othaya, Nyeri county, on Saturday.
The programme was started by the school's old boys association led by Alex Gathii, a director of Second Chance Counselling Centre.
Second Chance is a Kenyan counselling organisation providing in a diverse range of services in child and adolescent counselling, crisis counselling, addiction, and marriage and family therapy.
It is equipped with personnel who are trained to offer different types of assistance, most frequently talk-based therapy.
They also help people with physical, emotional and mental health issues to improve their sense of wellbeing, alleviate feelings of distress and resolve the crisis. They provide assessment, diagnosis and treatment of more severe psychological symptoms.
Gachutha said she will present a request to have counselling studies introduced in secondary schools and made mandatory.
She heads the government-funded Counselling Board.
"By offering counselling as a subject, our country will be giving a rebirth to our learning institutions," Gachutha said.
Gathii, the managing director of Second Chance Counselling Centre, said teaching counselling as subject in secondary schools would significantly boost performance.
She said more needs to be done in those learning institutions on counselling touching students, teachers, non-teaching staff and even parents.
Replicating the subject in higher learning institutions and ensuring counselling services are readily available would help avert incidents like last week's shooting of a magistrate by a police officer in Nairobi, they asserted.
They lauded the government’s move to found the Counseling and Psychologists Board and called for more support for the entity from both government and stakeholders.
"My goal with the nationwide schools' programme is to help the students with physical, emotional and mental health issues, to improve their sense of well being, alleviate their feelings of distress and resolve any crisis in their life that could get them stuck away from their bright futures," Gathii said.
She also hoped to facilitate self-awareness to all students and help them navigate the identity crisis, to facilitate behaviour change, psycho-educate on different topics such as social media, peer pressure and contextual issues like LGBTQ.
Other important areas career and personal development, life skills like stress, anger and time management to enhance decision-making processes and maximise students' potential.
Chinga Boys alumni chairman Alex Gathii said the team wants to have complete mental wellness with time through a holistic approach, which will help raise the mean score to 8.4 this year.
The institution’s 1,500 students benefitted from counselling services from the KCPA officials and other guests.
These included Allan Njenga of NIBS technical college who encouraged young men that there is still hope despite mental challenges.
He also urged the government to give equal chances to boys just like girls.
Counselling expert Joe Wisdom encouraged the students that their future is bright despite the current challenges.
The programme launch at the school comes a month after the alumni launched their association during a ceremony presided over by Energy Principal Secretary Alex Wachira.
The alumni are targeting to raise over Sh100 million by March next year for improvement of school infrastructure.
