This paper presents both a developmental and an operational definition of the process of therapeutic communication and analyzes the dynamics of the helping relationship in terms of therapeutic communication. Basically, therapeutic communication is defined operationally by the complementary communication behaviors which occur in each stage of the helping process. A summary of these behaviors, from the prehelping phase through three subsequent stages, details crucial helper and helpee skills such as empathy, genuineness, self-exploration, confrontation, risk, and so on, and places them in the context of the developmental process. (KS)