I find myself playing counselor to a lot of my friends. They seek advice about everything from employment, moving places, to their love lives. They don't hesitate to tell me everything including illnesses, depression, family discords and abuse. I am actually regarded affectionately by my friends as someone who is willing to listen.
Do any of you INTPs find yourself in the same situation? I wonder why this is so. INTPs infamously have the least understanding of feelings. For example, I am so bad with my feelings that I tend to repress them until they eat me away or make me explode. And I could never accept feelings for what they are -- I'm always trying to analyze it to see if they "make sense".
Yes, I get a LOT of people coming to me asking for advice.
Typical reasons they've given me:
1. "You're safe -- I can tell you anything and you don't judge me."
2. "You're perceptive, you see things I wouldn't have even noticed."
3. "You're smart and see how everything fits together."
4. "You care about me and empathize."
5. "You give good workable advice and show how it can be applied in a situation."
6. "You listen well."
When I was younger, I was much harsher about feelings (I also tried to "analyze" them and then ignore the ones that made no sense and was critical of others who were emotional), but when I came into my own I had learned to accept them as valid parts of people's personality that had to be accepted and dealt with, rather than suppressed or ignored. I have had to work through some serious psychological/emotional issues in my own life and it made me far more sensitive of others and accepting of where they are at.
So I feel pretty well integrated at this time in my life and able to be useful to just about anyone.
I think INTPs who develop acceptance/sensitivity of emotions have a lot to offer. The good observation skills, the big picture thinking, ability to see things from multiple views (thus able to see things through the other person's eyes), comprehension of complex systems (which is basically what people's patterns of behavior are), the ability to detach and so not get personally screwed up by or immersed within another person's issues, the ability to start without many assumptions and thus keep a more open view of things, the potential to articulate ideas well and accurately... lots of good stuff there.
The biggest hindrance is the hang-up on dismissing emotions as invalid in some way or unworthy of attention, and of not thinking about how best to deliver information to the person needing help. You have to do it for THEM, not for YOU; and so, just like with teachers (who have similar qualities to counselors, communication is the goal), you see it from their angle and then figure out what will specifically be of most use to THEM.