Building and Maintaining Client—Worker Relationships

Abstract

The previous chapter examined different kinds of communication. In this chapter we begin to explore the communication skills required for different purposes in social work. While an emphasis on the worker–client relationship has been challenged, because of its inherent lack of purpose, and excessive preoccupation with the process of helping, at the expense of the evaluation of outcome, there is evidence from counselling and psychotherapy, as well as from social work clients, of the importance of the relationship as a means of engaging in collaborative problem solving. It is in this sense, as a necessary base for carrying out social work tasks, that this chapter explores communication skills involved in building and maintaining helping relationships.