 Family and friends of Funtō Gumo have gathered to celebrate the grand opening of a counseling centre in BIO, therapy and wellness. The opening aids to give options to a few of the government's therapy centres and provide mental wellness to Nigerians. Correspondent Paul George was there. It's a serene environment for wellness as guests arrive at intervals. The amiable and soft-spoken clinical and mental health therapist Funtō Ogumbawu welcomes them. She immediately takes them around the counseling rooms one after the other. With smiles on her face, she excitedly speaks of how the journey of saving lives all began. Guys, I think about you, the things that I enjoy doing, the things that I'm naturally get to act and it was talking to people. People would always come and talk to me, they would always come and share with me and so thankfully my parents are supportive and so when it came time to start school, I just decided to study psychology. So I have a bachelor's degree in psychology and communication and a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling. Had the opportunity to study abroad outside of Nigeria and I worked and practiced and when life was moving the direction of moving back to Lagos, it was only a matter of time before I started EBIO. So it's always been a long-time professional goal of mine to start my own private practice, my own therapy practice and I feel so blessed that it's a reality now. Exceeding passion for the job, Funtō enthusiastically talked about the challenge of Nigerians not visiting a clinical mental health centre. Attributing it to lack of awareness. I would say one of the biggest challenges is just having to educate people on the importance of it because there isn't a lot of information. A lot of people are gathering their information from maybe like media sources or myths and you know maybe stories that have been told to us about like mentally unstable people. So a big challenge is just getting to see people, having people to get to see the value in it. The founder and lead pastor of the love of God in Christ, the logic church, Dr. Flourish Peters welcomes the initiative, praising the therapist for thinking of Nigeria first. He spoke alongside his wife, Pastor Amaka, who shares the same sentiment. We need a lot of believers in this space who can give godly counsel and counsel for you know my bias, the influence of the Holy Spirit and so this is descent out here when she just moved here and I've seen significant improvement here. So there's the piece, I like the name BIO, it's what Afrocentric if I would say so myself and I like the meaning of the name and Funtou is a blessing to our nation, our community. So if you're watching, I want you to counsel in good sound, godly counsel, I will say that BIO is the place to be at. The blueprint that God has placed in her spirit of fine fulfillment in Jesus' name. Funtou is somebody that has a lot of wisdom and she has a calm spirit too and not judgmental. I think having this kind of space, a safe space where people can talk about things is doing a lot of good to our community. When people talk about mental health, what happens most time is that people bottle these things in but with a place like this, with a BIO wellness therapy place, somewhere like this will give people the opportunity to speak and I think it's actually amazing. It's not something that you find naturally in Nigeria because a lot of people don't want to expose themselves but it's very important for the wellness of people. The anconium continued as other guests who also spoke to plus theory Africa could not hide their joy of a new beginning. I've been in therapy for three years and I've seen the benefits of it for sure and I'm praying for the day when the world at large sees mental health on equal measure to physical health the same way we go to a doctor you know when we're unwell everybody needs an outlet when either you have a down day or there's something going on sometimes you think it's just in your head but they could actually be a serious problem you know so it's incredibly important particularly in Nigeria we have so many stresses so much more than the average person everywhere else in the world so what I'm talking about is incredible and when I heard about it I was so so excited. I think therapy is very important wherever you live in the world it's even more important because more important than Nigeria because Nigeria is general we go through a lot it's been a tough period for us even just economically and the first thing that affects your mental health so I think that doesn't get a lot of attention just because of our culture but it's important for us to grow out of that and start by visiting places like this. As Nigeria continues to grapple with the jack bar syndrome there is a glimmer of hope as Funto Ogumbangwu founder Ibiyao therapy and wellness still believes in the bright future of the country Paul George plus TV news. Hello hope you enjoyed the news please do subscribe to our youtube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates