, and Long note (1195) that "advanced empathic responses are hunches the counselor has devised regarding the implicit or partially revealed meanings embedded in the client's messages." In other words, the counselee will, consciously or unconsciously, be trying to make sense of the confusion that sent him to the counselor in the first place. Consequently, he will say things that will indicate his own guesses as to cause or motivation. But being untrained in examining himself, he is unable to deduce their meaning, so he visits a counselor.
For example, a counselee may describe the fond memory of building model airplanes when he was a child. While he may not know that this memory even has anything to do with the reason he is in a career counselor's office, the counselor, aware of the need to look for clues, can analyze the memory. Model airplanes involve a glue that stinks, but that didn't bother him. It is not only a tactile activity, but one that requires great dexterity and patience. By consciously discussing the characteristics of the activities the counselee enjoys, the counselor can begin to help him find what sorts of careers involve those same skills and activities.
Sin is a word most people don't like because it implies the person is wrong. Proverbs 16:25 says "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death." Most people, late twentieth century Americans in particular, vehemently deny being wrong even when an overwhelming majority of the evidence says they are. The counselor must be careful to present his guesses as suggestions, thoughts, or ideas, not as prescriptions. He may be right, and may have a counselor's evidence that he is right, but the ethical demands of a counselor require him to be tactful and polite in his counseling.
What should never be an issue but perhaps is the biggest issue in counseling is the subject of sex. While sex is intended to occur only between...