Volunteering and the helper-therapy principle

Domain XV · Nature, philosophy, social & rites of passage · Frank Riessman · 1965

What it is

This is not a psychotherapy. It is a principle about helping plus a civic practice (volunteering) that a psychotherapist can assess, prepare a client for, integrate into treatment as valued activity, monitor, and help sustain or end. The core idea, as Riessman's principle is summarised: people who…

Format

• No founder or body publishes a phased clinical protocol for using volunteering in therapy; the phases below are a therapist-side structure built from the helper-therapy benefits, NCVO's quality features and behavioural-activation logic. No source gives a session count or duration; volunteering work…
• Phase C: Preparation and activation. Goal: a small, scheduled first step (enquiry, visit, taster session), with barriers solved and disclosure decisions made. Move on when the first contact has happened.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: Frank Riessman's helper-therapy principle ("The 'Helper' Therapy Principle", Social Work 10(2), 1965, pp. 27–32), as its four helper benefits are summarised in peer-support training by Mark Salzer (citing Riessman 1965 and Skovholt 1974); formal volunteering as NCVO's Time Well Spent national survey (2019) describes it, including its eight features of a quality volunteer experience;…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Evidence status in one line: a systematic review found that cohort studies showed favourable effects of volunteering on depression, life satisfaction and wellbeing, that these findings were not confirmed by experimental studies, that a meta-analysis of five cohort studies found lower mortality risk…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• abrupt quitting after a conflict; shame; loss of the only social contact. Working: the client ends cleanly and keeps the gains.
• repeated postponement (return to 4.2 and 4.3 to check motive and fear); steps too big. Working: steps are taken between sessions.
• an identity that depends entirely on being needed; shame at receiving help oneself. Working: the client can both give and receive help.
• sleep loss, irritability, resentment, dread before shifts, neglect of family or own health. Working: the client restores a load that feels chosen.
• pressure to overshare in peer roles where lived experience is the job; regret after disclosure. Working: the client feels in control of what is known.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.