Expert laments rising trauma cases in Nigeria
The Managing Director and Principal Consultant, Winbox Centre, Dr. Deji Osasona, has expressed worries over the rising cases of trauma in the country.
Osasona made his position known in a statement made available to PUNCH online on Tuesday after hosting an event tagged HealingFest, a free Trauma Therapy Conference themed ‘From Scars to Stars.”
Osasona said, “According to data, over 80 per cent of Nigerians have experienced or witnessed one form of trauma or the other ranging from betrayal to invalidations, extreme poverty, losses, failures, neglects, sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, and exposure to all manners of violence and crime such as kidnapping and banditry”
He noted that to address the challenges of trauma, the centre would launch an initiative called The Healing Room, a radio talk therapy show to help checkmate the adverse impacts of psychological trauma on mental health, marital relationships and marketplace productivity in the country.
The statement added, “There are different forms of adversities in our homes and societies that one way or the other could have traumatised us, and the major problem with trauma is that when you experience or witness it, there is a way you subconsciously learnt to cope against it to survive that when repeatedly practised becomes a behavioural pattern that can sabotage your mental health, marital relationship and marketplace productivity in adulthood.
“A lot of people are not aware of this, but they are rather blaming people, the economy and a lot of people are not productive in their business.
“Their businesses are not growing and they are blaming their employers or employees they are blaming their spouses and a lot of people have mental issues, but they are blaming demons, but really, it often has a lot to do with past trauma in our life that we are yet to heal from or break free from the resultant self-sabotaging behavioural pattern.
“So, the first purpose for this conference is to sensitise people or help them to gain awareness on how past trauma is affecting them in these different and important areas of their life. The second purpose is to make therapy services available to the majority that need it the most but cannot afford it.”
Speaking on the healing room initiative, he said: “We are launching a programme called the healing room show which would be announced on the dedicated radio and youtube channel, and the essence is for people who need therapy but cannot afford it to benefit, while also serving as a conduit for sensitizing the masses to the effects of psychological trauma in our society.
“We are going to have a partnership with a radio station, and hopefully, we will get sponsorship. It will be aired so that people can learn from it, and it will be at no cost to the client volunteering their issue on air. So you are availing yourself to go through therapy to heal and for others to learn at no cost to you because the program is sponsored by a corporate body.
“So we thought of it and said if most people that need therapy cannot afford it, then why are we here, so we said let us put a programme together that will be free for people to come together and let us even kickstart the journey to healing by helping them gain awareness and understanding on how they can break the cycle.”
He stated that over 90 per cent of people who need therapy do not show up for therapy because it is costly and they cannot afford it.
He further said, “it is time for Nigerians to heal psychologically and unlearn those past trauma-induced behavioural patterns sabotaging their progress in life and work, and our societal development at large. While this is possible on an individual level without professional help for some, many would, however, require it in the form of professional therapy to kickstart their healing journey. Unfortunately, therapy is costly in this society, and many that need it cannot afford it.”
