In the authors' experience, most instructors have dealt with a student "crisis" in some form. When a paper is late, an assignment incomplete, an exam missed, or a lecture skipped, students seeking special accommodations from instructors frequently share (often unsolicited) intimate details about their personal lives. College instructors are increasingly faced with these situations. In this article, the authors discuss how instructors can assist and empower students in crisis using the Advocacy-Based Counseling (ABC) perspective. This praxis, developed by battered women's advocates to inform their work with survivors of intimate partner violence, emphasizes the importance of listening to students, as well as identifying and addressing safety concerns. The authors also discuss the necessary limits of the instructor's role in these situations, and how to communicate those limits to students.