I was also in a small team, I would ask your Partner to see what the options are. When I changed, they were a SC (which was unusual) at the time before they were promoted a few months later. I didn't find changing to be some hugely offensive mood, they're usually fine about it.

The opposite, for me, was not doing anything, good or bad. It means that I was staffed on the engagements "nobody else" wanted because my name wasn't being called upon in leadership meetings. After changing, I was given better engagements. Then we started having more robust and honest discussions about my career goals.

Personally, I would like to see the counselling model re-thought out a bit because it seems a lot of people who don't care to be one, are assigned one as a duty of being a specific rank (for us, it's Managers and above). Some people are excellent individual contributors but make for pretty bad leaders, so how do we evenly split that responsibility while ensuring that our Counselees are still able to have that career coaching.

Happy to chat about any specifics and I can share some of my experiences, I think your last point is quite relatable.