Africa’s female emotions doctor and founder, Emotions City, Oyinkansola Alabi, has set up an Emotions City Trust aimed at supporting thousands of individuals who require therapy and cannot afford it.
This is in a bid to cushion the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on mental health of Nigerians.
Emotions City has also unveiled its new Lagos office, located at the Osborne Foreshore Estate in Ikoyi, where top-notch mental health sessions and trainings are held.
According to Alabi, the initiative was commissioned to support people who are experiencing mental instability especially as a result of the changes brought about by the unprecedented pandemic and cannot afford to pay for therapy.
“The changes brought about by the pandemic such as loss of jobs, inflation of prices of goods and services, have had drastic effects on a lot of people, so people naturally reach out to us daily across our social media platforms,” Alabi said.
“We get at least 50 requests daily, asking for counselling, but we are not always able to attend to them because whoever needs to be attended to has to pay, we have bills to pay too.
“So we will be offering 80 percent free therapy to Nigerians. Our plan is to get people who appreciate investing in mental health to foot those bills and then give to people who cannot afford to pay for mental health.
“However, patients will have to pay the remaining 20 percent of the fee, reason is so that they can value what we are offering them. We have spoken to 40 different therapists and psychologists who agreed that they will receive a stipend every session,” she said.
Speaking on the requirements for a therapy session, she said that interested persons would be required to fill a form indicating why they needed a therapy session and with those details, some would be selected to partake in the programme.
“We have put up our account details on our social media platforms. When people pay in, they can send us an evidence of payment, we will also give an account of how the money is spent. As soon as people start contributing, we can commence with the therapy sessions,” Alabi said while calling on well-meaning Nigerians for support.
Emotions City is an African organisation, designed by an African for Africans based in Lagos and Texas. It maps out Emotional Intelligence solutions to emotional challenges, develops insights and strategies to the most pressing personal and organisational issues, and impacts the course of history by inspiring, empowering and influencing professionals.
