Professional Counseling in Kenya: History, Current Status, and Future Trends

Abstract

The authors examine the history and development of the counseling profession in Kenya. This profession is deeply rooted in responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the emergence of mental health needs created by the impact of political and community‐based violence, increasing student unrest in public institutions, and government efforts to provide social–emotional support for students in public schools and universities. The authors also examine the challenges for the profession and make recommendations for the future.

The Doctorate in Counselor Education

“…Within Kenya, Nigeria, India, Fiji and Vietnam for example, brief workshops, certificates of training and undergraduate degrees serve as the primary pedagogical models for educating and equipping persons to do the work of counseling (Aluede et al 2005;Auxier et al 2005;Carson et al 2009;Le 2009;Okech and Kimemia 2011;Raney and Cinarbas 2005). In most countries outside the U.S., there is an absence of uniform standards and accrediting bodies to provide oversight for education and training.…”

The Emergence of Counseling in Sierra Leone

“…These institutionalized efforts to address mental health in Sierra Leone go back to the mid‐1800s (Bell, ). However, unlike in other sub‐Saharan countries where counseling has taken root and is flourishing, such as Botswana (Stockton, Nitza, & Bhusumane, ), Kenya (Okech & Kimemia, ), Nigeria (Okocha & Alika, ), South Africa (Maree & van der Westhuizen, ), Uganda (Senyonyi, Ochieng, & Sells, ), and Zimbabwe (Richards, Zivave, Govere, Mphande, & Dupwa, ), in Sierra Leone the field of formal counseling has just begun to emerge.…”

International Perspectives on Psychotherapy

“…Zimbabwe's universities offer degrees in psychology, up to master's degree level but there is no clear differentiation between various sub-disciplines (no specific category for clinical psychologists exists), which is echoed in the broad nature of the national regulatory body's licensing category for psychologists (AHPZ, 2015). In Kenya, there are no clinical psychology training programmes (Koinange, 2004;Okech & Kimemia, 2012) and with only three clinical psychologists (none of whom work in public service), no regulatory body (Ndetei & Gatonga, 2011). Universities in countries such as Tanzania (Hassan et al, 2009) and Zambia (Mayeya et al, 2004) do not currently house dedicated psychology departments; nor do they have regulatory or licensing bodies.…”