The helping relationship between a client and a practitioner is often described as the heart and soul in social work. This research explored the helping relationship between social workers and clients (the clients were mothers) in the context of public social services in Israel. The results presented here are part of a larger ethnographic study that included interviews with 14 social workers, 20 mothers who are clients, and extensive participant observations and textual analysis. Presented in this article are the results pertaining to the essential elements of the helping relationship as perceived by the research participants. Social workers and clients pointed to similar elements that comprise a good helping relationship: love and support; trust and feeling safe; listening and feeling understood; making an effort to help; humanness, compassion, and sensitivity; availability, continuity, and being there when needed; and chemistry. Participants' accounts exemplify the importance and centrality of the helping relationship in social work. The article concludes with a discussion of the study's implications for practice, policy, and research.

中文翻译：

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社工与案主互助关系的要义

案主和从业者之间的帮助关系通常被描述为社会工作的核心和灵魂。这项研究探讨了以色列公共社会服务背景下社会工作者和客户（客户是母亲）之间的帮助关系。这里呈现的结果是一项更大的民族志研究的一部分，该研究包括对 14 位社会工作者、20 位客户母亲的采访，以及广泛的参与者观察和文本分析。本文介绍的是与研究参与者所感知的帮助关系的基本要素有关的结果。社会工作者和案主指出了构成良好帮助关系的相似要素：爱和支持；信任并感到安全；倾听和感觉被理解；努力提供帮助；人性，同情心，和灵敏度；可用性、连续性以及在需要时在场；和化学。参与者的叙述体现了社会工作中帮助关系的重要性和中心地位。文章最后讨论了该研究对实践、政策和研究的影响。