Communication skills awareness and training are essential for any human relations endeavor. Operating on the premise that everyone can learn effective communication skills, the goal of this book is to provide a foundation for persons to develop the human relations skills they need to build effective helping relationships. Effective communication is the core of the helping process and this volume can be used by groups and individuals, in both formal and informal human relations training. The emphasis is on active, solution-oriented strategies in a multicultural, ecological framework. This book is intended for undergraduate and graduate students in professional disciplines, as well as human service trainers, instructors, supervisors, trainers, managers, and administrators at all levels. It focuses particularly on the knowledge and skills needed by various jobs such as mental health assistants, counselors, and employment service workers. The material is appropriate for beginning students entering helping professions, those people who need or want to improve their human relations effectiveness, those continuing on for professional training in counseling, and those in nonprofessional settings who find themselves in informal helping relationships. Overall, the book is intended to be a practical, applied-skills manual rather than a theoretical treatise. Separate chapters are devoted to the helping relationship, communication skills, building relationships, helping theory, communication strategies, application, crisis theory, and issues affecting helping. Three appendices present: (1) Observer's Guide to Rating Communication Skills; (2) Sample Psychotherapy Policies; and (3) Sample Client Information Sheet. Contains an index and a glossary of terms. (RJM)