This article consists of two parts. First we present an ongoing Swedish research project, "Counseling between recognition, justice and difference". The aims of the project are presented, along with an outline of the political and professional questions that motivate it and the theories which inform it. In the second part, an account of one of the studies in the project is presented, which focuses on counseling conversations with recently arrived refugees in secondary education. The analysis of the conversations focuses on the communicative projects of the participants, the unintended consequences of their actions, and the impact of power asymmetries.