FOR US$2 a pop, New York commuters are getting five minutes of “emotional advice” from an 11-year-old at a Brooklyn subway station.

    Over the past nine Sundays, Ciro Ortiz, a 142-cm Bushwick sixth-grader, has been counseling anxious Brooklynites at the Bedford L train stop.

    His office hours are midday to 2 p.m.

    “It’s a good way to give back and make money,” the 11-year-old told The New York Post.

    One recent afternoon, a couple stopped by Ciro’s card table for some marital counseling. The husband was unhappy that his wife had recently gone vegan.

    “I told him that she didn’t get mad at him for eating meat,” Ciro said. “She likes to eat what she wants and he likes to eat whatever he wants so they’re just gonna have to deal with it.”

    In the past, Ciro had been bullied at school, and that inspired him to offer counseling instead of channeling his entrepreneurial tendencies into a lemonade stand.

    “Ciro is really sensitive and he’s had a hard time,” said his mother, Jasmine Aequitas, a 35-year-old poet.

    “The first day he was out there [on the subway platform, giving counseling], he was very nervous and unsure of himself ... A few Sundays later he’s come back saying, ‘I’ve met so many wonderful people. I’m gonna end up having so many friends.’”

    “He’s always been much more mature than whatever grade he was in,” added his father, Adam Ortiz, 36 and a nonprofit marketing director.

    On a good Sunday, Ciro rakes in US$50, but he has no plans to pursue a career as a psychotherapist; he wants to be a video-game developer.

    He “hates” school but is on the honor roll and excels in science and English classes.

    The young counselor thinks he got his wisdom from his parents, who have always encouraged him to be kind to everyone and to pursue his dreams — even if it means that they have to spend their Sundays hanging out in a subway station as Ciro works.

    Clients say the young boy’s advice is right on the money.

    “Somebody came up to us and said that what he told her is what she’d been feeling in her gut that whole time,” Adam said.

    Ciro loves Minecraft and comic books, but he hasn’t been on a shopping spree with his earnings. “He buys food or snacks at school for kids who can’t afford them,” Adam said. “He’s not selfish with his money.”

    The most common problem he’s seen, Ciro said, is adults having trouble dealing with change. “They feel a certain way in the past and when they look [back] in hindsight, they say things were so much better back then,” he said.

    His advice? “We have to accept [change]. It’s going to happen — it’s always going to happen. Life is always changing.”

    (SD-Agencies)