Oh, no mind-reading tricks, just talk to a lot of people and get some ideas about common issues. And when I get a hint that someone is saying something about an issue I've heard over & over from others, I'll say something like, "if what you're worried about is..."
It's funny how being observant about feelings strikes people as mind-reading sometimes. I'm also observant about, and remember archaic nonsense like jurisdictional questions, but for some reason no one thinks I'm being a mind reader when I make the connection between one jurisdictional situation and another one.
My memory bank works different than most, I think. I've got average memory for numbers and names, anything that's done by ROTE requires a little more work for me unless there's an outline I already know, a story where I can fit it in, a trick I can use to memorize it... but I've got an AMAZING memory for concepts, emotions, logic. I can hear a story and it'll trigger some similar story from the back of my mind & if I can figure out what triggered it and remember the exact dispositions of things, it sounds like magic sometimes.
This is why I usually ask people to let us know what happened in thier situations. Every time I get a story and get the final resolution in my head, it's like a new circuit connects & that becomes part of the whole library of examples in my head that I can pull up & use the next time I hear something that triggers that memory. It's kind of fun...