ABSTRACT
This chapter is divided into two sections. First, it presents a history and conceptual background of the helping alliance concept and tie it to the concerns of service-learning. Second, the chapter offers some examples from our research and practice to create an interface between psychology and service-learning around the helping alliance concept. The helping alliance or working alliance has had a long history in psychotherapy. There are numerous issues associated with the helping alliance that require further thinking and research and that make this an exciting and useful concept to pursue. Service-learning holds the promise of contributing to the knowledge and practice of psychotherapy. Institutionalized connection with community action provides the opportunity to place psychologists in a context in which their theories can again come to life as “radical, penetrating, and liberating”.
