Traditional Healer

A traditional healer is a practitioner of indigenous healing — herbalist, dibia, babalawo, boka and others — consulted for physical and mental complaints. In much of Nigeria they are the first point of contact for someone who has become unwell, well before any clinic.

Key Points:

• Why they are consulted first: proximity, affordability, and an explanation of illness that matches how the family already understands the world. Nigeria has only a few hundred psychiatrists for more than 200 million people, so this is also arithmetic.
• Herbal preparations are not inert: some interact with psychiatric medication, and some carry their own liver and kidney risks. Anyone starting treatment should be asked what else they are taking — and asked without judgment, or the answer will not be accurate.
• Documented harms in some settings: chaining, confinement and beatings have been recorded at a number of traditional and faith healing centers in Nigeria. This is abuse rather than treatment, and it is not representative of every practitioner.
• Collaboration is an established model: programs in Nigeria and Ghana have trained healers to recognize conditions needing medical care and to refer, while continuing the support they already provide, with encouraging results.
• In therapy: having seen a healer is not a reason for embarrassment and is worth mentioning — it tells the clinician how you understand what is happening, and what you may already have taken.