We’ve thrown pre-martial counselling to the dogs – Counsellor

Counsellor and President of Warrior Wives Prayer Ministry Global, Pastor Doctor Mrs. Agnes Odoi, has attributed the increasing rate of divorce cases in Ghanaian society to the lack of proper premarital counselling.

According to her, pre-marital counselling is supposed to prepare a would-be couple for marriage, but unfortunately, the timing takes away their focus.

In an interview with Paul Anomah Kordieh on e.tv. Ghana’s ‘Christian Connect’ show, she said, “They end up not focusing on the teaching rather they focus on the dressing, the party, and what will happen at their wedding. So, they don’t have that attention to study or listen to what the counsellor is taking them through”.

She mentioned that there are so many churches that don’t have time for premarital counselling.

“In 2020, research I conducted made me find out that there are some churches that even use two weeks for pre-marital counselling, and some of them also use seven days because there is pressure from family and couples to get it done immediately,” she disclosed.

She also added that sometimes there is also a problem with the counsellors because they are not professionals.

“There are so many churches that make people counsellors based on how long they have been married or how old they are, which is wrong.” “This is because there is no form of training or seminar for them to go through,” she said.

She emphasised that counselling has been taken as advice, but both are different.

“We’re not preparing our counsellors, and those we call counsellors are not counsellors, because, from all indications, a lot of the counsellors don’t have what it takes to counsel,” she added.