Counselor as Advocate?

Have you sat with a victim of abuse and felt moved to help them connect to other resources and support? Have you desired that their church would know how to care better for them? Sometimes our care for victims will extend beyond our one-on-one relationship with them into their church or other settings. But as we seek to plead another's cause to people outside the counseling relationship, we can quickly find ourselves in uncharted territory. How we advocate, in tenor, tone, and scope, can have helpful or devastating impacts for our counselee, the church, and ourselves.  Victims are among the most vulnerable, and it is vital we get this right. Thankfully, we have a biblical model of acting as an advocate because Jesus took on the role of advocate for us (1 John 2:1). Our desire to care, protect, and assist a victim will lead us to think carefully about how and when we engage in advocacy.