by Nate Brooks
An email lies in wait in the inbox. A quiet request is made for help in the middle of the sanctuary. A text bubble pops up. The small point of contact that begins a counseling case can quickly ripen into knowing far more about particular situations in a person’s life than any other human ever has.
Saying “yes” to counseling someone plants the seeds of a relationship that is ultimately outside of our control. Counseling means engaging hurting, suffering, and sinning people. And people will typically act consistently with their sufferings, hurts, and sins.
Whoever a counselee is outside of the counseling, they will eventually be inside of the counseling.
The name of the man or woman who first uttered this aphorism has long been forgotten, but the sentiment’s clear truth endures. When we import an angry counselee into our lives, we can expect them to turn their anger on us at some point. A despairing counselee most likely will spawn inconveniently-timed, yet entirely essential phone calls.
This aphorism holds no less true when we step towards situations of domestic abuse. We can fully expect to encounter a world where an abusive counselee will attempt
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