Giving Advice is Cheating

[Dr. Shane]

Do you know why good counselors don't give advice?  There are several reasons.  While many seeking a counselor ask the counselor what they should do, what they really need is help making a decision.  But the decision needs to be made by them and they need to understand why they are choosing the solution they are.  A counselor's advice also prevents the one seeking help from analyzing all of their options and weighing the pros and cons of each one.  The one seeking help may need guidance to establish goals but they must decide what the best path is to achieve those goals.  Of course, the counselor's ideas and advice may not always be best either.  The amount of time a counselee spends in session with a counselor isn't enough to give a counselor all of the detailed information of any given situation.  A small detail that is missing could seem irrelevant but make the counselor reconsider their whole view of the problem.

Counselors are teachers.  They wear light blue regalia when they graduate (the same as education).  They are specialized teachers and their class size is often quite small.  Like any other teacher, a counselor can't give the student the answers.  They can help but the student has to figure it out.