ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how therapeutic relationships create power to help clients manage crises. It describes the roles of empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness in helping clients manage situations of imminent danger. The chapter also explains the meaning and importance of principles for managing client crises with therapeutic relationship skills. It describes the assessment factors in determining level of risk for a client who seems to have thoughts of suicide. The chapter also describes safety plans, including what they are, what they are based on, how and why they can work, and how they are empowered by therapeutic relationships. It discusses aspects of psychotherapists' therapeutic relationships that can be used to help clients determine their level of risk in situations in which the danger is domestic or dating violence. The chapter also discusses the common difficulties for beginning counselors in helping clients manage situations that may be of imminent danger.
