Our task in biblical counseling is NOT to get the counselee excited about counseling to keep coming back; instead, our goal is to assign homework because that will point the counselee to Christ so that he/she will be excited about spending time with God in the study and obedience of His Word in everyday life.
If we simply get the counselee excited and dependent upon the counseling hour (as though it is some “magical” hour), then we have failed and might as well be secular counselors encouraging the counselee that we are the experts, they need to keep coming back to pay us, and it is our insight that will set them free. All of that, of course, is hogwash!
Christ and His Word are the only experts in counseling, we want to encourage dependence upon the Lord and not on any counselor in human form, and we want the truth as revealed by the Holy Spirit to set the counselee free (John 8:32).
So depend upon the One True Triune God and His Word as revealed by His Spirit.
-Mark (help me to trust you, Lord God my Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer!)