Clients enter counselling at a crisis point, seeking anything from clear instructions to help in generating their own solutions. In deradicalisation, such contacts may be voluntary or compulsory, yet the quality of the counsellor-client relationship remains the decisive success factor. A safe, reflective alliance should foster three classic aims—autonomy, self-guidance and personal responsibility—while in extremism cases adding a fourth: commitment to democratic norms or at least neutral behaviour toward them. To reach these goals, counsellors must adopt an empathic, systemic stance, continuously scrutinising their own attitudes and the dynamics they create. Through this relational focus, the process empowers clients to make and implement decisions independently, ultimately rendering professional support unnecessary.