At their two-day conference in Harare, more than 50 practitioners resolved to go around the country publicising their profession as well as offering numerous services to locals.
The conference, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe, was organised by the Zimbabwe Association of Family Therapists and Professional Counsellors (ZAFTPC).
It was convened by Reverend Taylor Nyanhete, Michael Ndoro, Prisca Mashoko, and Christopher Maphosa.
“There is a new horizon for family therapists and professional counsellors,” said J Mapfumo in his presentation.
“We must, however, map the way forward in the counselling profession in Zimbabwe.”
Shupuikai Gwindi, ZAFTPC Secretary General, said there was a new horizon for family therapists, who are, however, largely ignored by citizens.
Dr Phillip Makurumidze told the conference that there was “stigmatisation” and “discrimination” in the counselling of people living with HIV/Aids within families, communities and workplaces.
“What is the panacea to this endemic,” he asked.
Another professional counsellor, Webster Chihambakwe, on the other hand, said there were dilemmas which tended to dilute all the confidence of a counsellor.
“What implications does this have to the counselling field in the eyes of the clients,” he said.
He then told the conference that he had counselled a male client who was having marital problems with his wife.
“He told me that he is gay,” Chihambakwe said. “So how then do you counsell such a person who tells you that he is gay but is married”
Dr Timothy Stamps, said medical practitioners also need counselling because sometimes they tend to take things and patients for granted.
A former Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Stamps told the conference that medical practitioners sometimes tended to take their experience for granted.
Stamps, now Chief Medical Advisor in the Office of The President and Cabinet, told the counsellors that many medical practitioners did not “listen to their patients”.
He said: “I think, ladies and gentlemen, that some doctors can also take advice from their patients.
“I was very embarrased one day when I told my patient that she was eating too much and yet I had put her on a diet. The surprised patient then told me that, in fact, the diet period had ended and I was wrong.”
Gwindi said the ZAFTPC would focus on more research, publiity, community service and publish a booklet outlining its services as it spreads countrywide.
In an interview, Ndoro said the conference would now become annual.
“We do not receive much publicity and not many people know about us,” Ndoro said.
“This was our first workshop but more will definitely come.”
Dr Stamps was Guest of Honour at the two-day event.
He told the counsellors that as “medical practitioners” they must “keep all information about their clients strictly confidential”.
Post published in: News