Counseling

Last reviewed Saturday, October 24, 2026

Counselling is a professional relationship in which a trained counsellor helps you work through a personal problem, a decision or a change, in confidence. It’s a talking therapy, often shorter and more focused than psychotherapy. A counsellor listens and helps you find your own answers rather than telling you what to do.

Also called: counseling (the American spelling); talking therapy.

For all twelve kinds, read Types of Counselling. For counselling in schools, read What Is Guidance and Counselling?

Types

By who’s in the room: individual, couples and marriage, family, or group. On Mytherapist.ng, Circles are therapist-led groups of up to 12.
By need: school, career, grief, addiction, rehabilitation and faith-based counselling.
By approach: person-centred, CBT-based and solution-focused, among others.

Goals

Counselling helps with emotional, relationship, career, study and life-stage problems. Typical goals are to understand what’s going on, cope with a loss or change, make a decision, change a hurtful pattern, or get on better with people.

Who can provide it

Counsellors: under the Counselling Practitioners Council of Nigeria (CPCN) Act 2022, it’s an offence to practise for reward as a registered Professional Counsellor, or claim the title, without registering. Registration needs an approved course, CASSON’s competence exam and CASSON membership. The Council’s board was inaugurated in April 2025; registration is only now starting.
Clinical psychologists: there’s no licensing law for psychologists yet, as far as public records show.
Social workers: covered by two 2022 Acts.
Psychiatrists: doctors registered with the MDCN, who can also prescribe.

A short-course certificate doesn’t make you a registered counsellor, and CASSON’s CCN and LPCN are association credentials, not a government licence. Ask any counsellor about their training and registration.

In Nigeria

Many people first meet counselling at school, and universities such as Ibadan, Ilorin and Nsukka train counsellors. The word is also used loosely for advice from a pastor, imam, elder or teacher. Professional counselling is confidential, and the counsellor doesn’t take sides or decide for you.

Counselling vs psychotherapy

The two overlap, and many people use the words interchangeably. Counselling often focuses on one problem over fewer sessions; psychotherapy can go deeper over a longer time.

When to get help

If something has weighed on you for weeks, or you face a decision you can’t think through alone, browse licensed therapists on Mytherapist.ng and book an individual or couples session by video, voice or chat. If you or someone else is in danger now, call 112 (or 767 in Lagos), or Safe Place Nigeria on 0800 800 2000. The full list is on our helplines page.

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