Real-Life Decision Making
As a Christian counselor, you speak regularly with a young boy named Kyle. He has a troublesome home life and has been having difficulty getting along with others at school.
He has been in various fights at school.
Recently, you've been having some success with him during the counseling sessions. He seems to enjoy being able to open up to someone and hearing about how the principles of Christianity can be followed to lead a better life.
Today, however, the session is not going well. It's obvious that something is bothering Kyle, but he's unwilling to talk about it. Near the end of the session, he says that he's going to punish someone at the schoolyard for tormenting him.
You try to talk him through this situation but he refuses to listen. "I've had it," he says. "I'm going to do something about it. Somebody at school is going to pay."
You don't like the sound of these threats. Of course, during counseling sessions, people often voice anger and make empty threats. Your job is to figure out when a client is actually going to act on his words.
You can't interfere too often outside of your counseling sessions because you would be overstepping your role as counselor. You aren't the child's parent or guardian. However, if you feel a threat is real, you can't just sit back and wait for something to happen.
What do you do?