The National Universities Commission (NUC) has approved Nigeria’s first Psycho-Spiritual Institute.

Operated by the Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, the institute will run in affiliation with Veritas University Abuja, offering two postgraduate programmes.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, the Executive Director of the Foundation, Rev. Fr. George Ehusani, announced that the regulatory body, the National Universities Commission, approved and accredited two postgraduate programmes: a Postgraduate Diploma in Psycho-Spiritual Trauma Healing and a Master’s Degree in Psycho-Spiritual Therapy.

Father Ehusani explained that the Kenyan campus of the Institute, which took off in 2013 and is affiliated with the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, has over the last decade produced nine sets of M.A. graduates in Psycho-Spiritual Therapy from 20 African countries as well as South America, Asia, and Europe.

He listed the countries to include Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan, Rwanda, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Italy, India, Colombia, Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, among others.

The Executive Director announced that the first set of 13 candidates for the two-year Master of Arts degree in Psycho-Spiritual Therapy, as well as the first set of 30 candidates for the one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Psycho-Spiritual Trauma Healing, have all resumed their studies at the Institute’s temporary campus.

“I must not forget to mention that between 2016 and now, our Institute has also been running a week-long certificate course in Basic Psycho-Spiritual Trauma Healing Skills for medical and para-medical workers, humanitarian workers, psychologists and counsellors, pastors and imams, teachers and social workers, emergency relief workers, functionaries of drug rehabilitation centres, correctional centres, and various volunteers, who, by the nature of their work, interact daily with depressed, distressed, and traumatized persons, and others in difficult emotional and psychological situations.

“The postgraduate diploma is designed for the above categories of persons from diverse professional backgrounds, but the mode of delivery of the course is hybrid, meaning that most of the course will be online (or virtual), with no more than two or three weeks of residency per semester.

“The Master’s Degree programme, on the other hand, is a two-year (or four-semester) fully residential programme, involving not only academic and professional training but also elements aimed at intense personal psycho-spiritual transformation, such as one-on-one counselling, spiritual direction, and growth therapy groups.

“We believe that at the end of their programme of studies, our candidates will be sufficiently equipped with knowledge, skills, and tools to facilitate the healing and rehabilitation of troubled minds and spirits, using a fully integrated psycho-spiritual approach.

“The establishment of these training programmes, with our uniquely integrated multidisciplinary approach, has, in our view, become an urgent imperative, considering that despite the wave of secularism sweeping across the world today, most African people remain deeply religious, such that one cannot successfully address their psycho-emotional challenges without taking into cognizance their religious, spiritual, and cultural realities.”

On his part, the Vice-Chancellor of Veritas University Abuja, Rev. Fr. Prof. Hyacinth Ichoku, applauded the National Universities Commission for accrediting the programme.

Describing the programme as a novel, he said the Institute has met international standards. “We are proud to be affiliated with the Institute,” Prof. Ichoku said.