A Blend of Western and African Psychotherapy
Pritz (2002) defined psychotherapy as a systematic application of defined methods in the treatment of psychic suffering and psychosomatic complaints as well as life crises of various origins. Madu (2015), also defined psychotherapy as a process that enables people to express their feelings in a protected environment, to a person trained to listen with understanding and compassion. In the African context, psychotherapy is a culture-based treatment, which starts with the recognition that culture is highly relevant to people’s everyday behaviour (Grills, 2006). It includes social context, history, ethnicity and other issues that the client deems relevant. African Psychotherapy is therefore a holistic approach that encompasses the cultural, social, spiritual, psychological, and economic aspects of life. An estimate of 80% of Africans, seek traditional therapy and hence, the existence of both Western and African Psychotherapy, has posed a state of dilemma among the modern African psychotherapists as well as among the clients. The central argument of this paper is to look at how the Western and African Psychotherapies influence one another for the benefit of the black African. This paper is a systematic literature review on psychotherapeutic processes of African traditional and religious faith healers, the current western focused psychotherapy practices in Africa. The authors also used their own knowledge on the Africa Psychotherapy from both the Digo and the Kamba communities in writing this paper. The researchers hereby recommend a blended psychotherapy form, where the western, the traditional African, and the religious psychotherapeutic values are blended for the benefit of modern African clients.