as cliche as it sounds, i like seeing my counselees smile and laugh towards the end of the counseling session. i get the "aw yes! there's still hope this is awesome yay!" kinda vibe lol😆

i was able to get the one who asked this question smile so yay! accomplishment!

oh. 😢 How do you cope with it?

I don't know but it doesn't work whatever it is

How'd you get through it?

One minute at a time at times, then as my life started becoming better little by little, one hour, then one day at a time. And calling the suicide crisis line, checking myself into the hospital, and good friends also helped me get through. Damn but that was one rough patch!!

i don't think my answer was enough 😢 i told her there's a difference between living and merely existing. and then i said a bunch more stuff and asked let her draw her own answers to her own questions. in my defense, I've been told in training that sometimes, the answers have to come from the counselees themselves. but really i'm just making excuses cause i don't feel like i did her justice 😢☹

You don't need to make any excuses. I think you did just fine. The counselees do need to answer their own questions sometimes. There's value in the processing. Biblically, I think it may have to do with teaching someone how to fish, rather than giving them a fish.