Abstract
This study was developed a study examining how often an outside stressor and counter transference coincide. This study focused on asking helping professionals if they believe their colleagues are able to adequately handle personal stress which coincides with a client's similar situation, while still maintaining an appropriate distance between the two. A questionnaire was used and distributed to various social service agencies in the Visalia-Tulare, CA area. The survey was designed by this researcher and administered via www.surveymonkey.com. This study concluded that helping professionals' beliefs stand in contrast with the current research on the same topics. This study shows that helping professionals believe that helper and client are likely to experience similar issues during treatment, and that participants feel they can handle the situation ethically. Participants believe that personal stress does impact their work, but they also feel that training should be available on managing stress, even though their colleagues handle stress well already.