‘Wellness aids spirituality, humanity capacity’

Wellness for Humanity Pastoral Counseling and Spiritual direction services exist to enhance and facilitate life journey of coming home to real and authentic self, says its spiritual director, Rev. (Dr.) Augustine Momoh

The ministry, a non-governmental organization (NGO), is engaged in healing and enhancing human capacity through spiritual psychology and medical resuscitation.
The spiritual director of the ministry, Rev Momoh, stated this in an exclusive interview with Daily Times in Ibadan.

Service to humanity, he said, is run by the Dominican Order of Preachers of the Province of St. Joseph, the Worker Nigeria and Ghana.

According to him, “Wellness acknowledges that life is a process of coming home to ourselves, which continually invites us to deeper levels of healing and growth. On the journey , we may experience difficult situations, hard times and feelings which seem overwhelming.”
He said that overwhelming situations may trigger negative psychological variables that may require one to seek counseling or spiritual direction.

“Pastoral counseling affords one an opportunity to work through one’s reality with another, in supportive climate of wellness that fosters one’s growth and healing. In Wellness Ministry, counseling and spiritual direction are taken holistically in its approach, attending to and integrating body, mind and spirit in the process of healing and growth,” he said.

He said that, “Wellness Spiritual Director will work you in the following issues, vocational problem, traumatic stress, unresolved grief and unforgiveness; frustration and self-esteem, mid-life crises, relationship issues, sexual problem, family and marriage problems, anger. guilt and anxiety.”

Momoh added,“Others are confusion and resentment, trauma, excessive fear, panic attack, hearing of voices or talking to oneself, constant failure in life or living a life without direction, depression, terrible nightmares, involvement in occultism and spiritism.

He said, “we help those who need spiritual transformation, those who want to experience stages of christian conversion, group spiritual guidance, holy longing, deeper relationship with God and fellow humans, improved prayer life and peace of mind, spiritual intimacy and family problems. In all these, Wellness helps you to experience your holy longing and faith in Jesus Christ.”

While giving an insight into the organisation, he said WFHM was established in Nigeria, with an avowed commitment to healing the human community through authentic human development and capacity building, saying, “We hope to develop human potential through vocational, psychological, spiritual and medical resuscitation.”

For him, the Ministry has helped individuals develop their God-given potential through spiritual, psychological, educational empowerment and medical resuscitation.

He said, “We sponsor children from poor homes to secondary and university education. We provide counseling and safe environment for HIV infected individuals, especially the youths. We empower widows in their struggles to care for their children and meet their daily needs. Wellness provides pastoral care, spiritual direction and counseling to people who are confused. We alleviate the suffering of individuals by providing conventional medicine for the sick and sometimes, alternative medicine is provided for their well-being.”

Momoh added: “We believe that human capacity building may not be totally realized without creating a safe environment for physical, psychological and spiritual development of the human person.

“Wellness is a member of WANGO, World Association of non- governmental organization, under the United Nations Public Affairs Division. “Wellness executives have attended many of the international conferences organized by WANGO, and has a special study interest of healing the human community through spiritual, psychological and medical resuscitation

“This bio-psycho-socio-spiritual model adopted by Wellness for Humanity Ministry for authentic human development and capacity building is in consonance with the United Nations call to global healing, including the ethical imperatives for sustainable development,” he added.