Giving advice

[RitaJC]

Think of life as a dance. There are many variables. Which is why there is no way to tell from your perspective what another person needs or has planned for in this life to learn. For example, a woman is with a man who her beats her and she is a "victim." If you tell her to leave him and facilitate that, and because she is disempowered and likely to be lead by someone easily, the choice to leave her man will not be entirely her own and she will not have stepped up completely from victimhood, and it will be you valuing her life rather than her valuing her own life. In this same scenario, there may be some sort of agreement between the man and woman to be of service to each other so they learn different things: the woman to rise out of victimhood and value her self; and man to embrace compassion for others. So if you interfere, you not only impair their own processes, but you get enmeshed with them.

My suggestion to you is to be a support system only. I am quite sure you could not tell your acquaintance anything he or she doesn't already know deep inside anyway. 

I agree,

Do whatever you can to help them use the current situation as a catalyst for their growth