Well I wrote the title of this blog years ago maybe but never actually wrote the blog post! Whatever my plan for it was then is long lost.

I still find it an interesting title. I think I landed on it thinking about a comeback I think I invented after hearing 'youth is wasted on the young' too many times, "Wisdom is wasted on the wise'. Really cutting, witty stuff from my twenty something self. Both phrases feel equally dumb to me.

A counsellor isn't someone who you see to get advice, although it can happen. It would require some extra ordinary clairvoyance on the part of the counsellor to know in advance what advice a client would benefit from. The benefit of seeing a counsellor comes from the exploration of what the client is experiencing, both inside the therapy room and out in the world. To make sense of what's going on, to empower them to make the choices they want to make, rather than ones they feel they have to.

Any advice I might have to offer to someone else, is really advice that I needed. However good that advice might be, it's arriving too late, and I'm not that person anymore. Even if it had arrived in time, getting the advice might have robbed me of some important learning or experience.