Therapy is just one form of counseling. Most people will not get through life without needing some sort of skilled advice. BQ's experience with two different therapists highlights the two kinds of counseling I mean: functional, learned advice vs. an endlessly sympathetic ear.
When I was in college, I had two different academic advisors. The first asked me lots of questions about how I was adjusting emotionally to the University environment and how I felt about my classes and professors etc. Being a freshman, I let her guide the conversation even though I was more interested in what courses to take etc.
The advisor I had closer to graduation always began by laying my transcript and my graduation requirements side by side and talking about getting from where I was to where I wanted to be. Towards the end of the session, he might ask: "everything going okay?" and I might say something like: "the stress is a bitch." and he'd say: "give me a call if you need anything."
I work in technology support so I see lots of people having technical problems. Some people describe the problem and want to know how quickly it will be fixed. Some people get hung up on trying to describe how much of a disruption the problem is and how important it is that it be fixed quickly. I've had people try to call meetings, pulling my techs off task to discuss the urgency of fixing the problem. I try to impress on the kids that work the incoming support calls that they are not grief counselors, their job is to get the relevant technical details but if I am too critical, they start to cry.
Auto mechanics are one of the signposts marking the great gender divide. I think this might have something to do with certain people wanting to bring their "personal transportation needs" to a discussion about a defective transmission solenoid. There is an advert for a car rental agency in which a woman comes in with a sleeping child on her hip and a story about a minor accident. The rental clerks scurry around to get her a rental car and have her car towed to a repair shop, all without waking the child. That level of service sounds excessive to me, and expensive. Maybe women get charged more by mechanics because they ask for more.