Features Jill Savege Scharff, a psychiatrist who is co-director of the International Institute of Object Relations Therapy and clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University. Introduces object relations therapy, a long-term therapy which sees relationships, beginning with the mother-infant relationship, as primary and in which the therapist provides a safe environment; the therapist-client relationship can be used as the basis for therapeutic work. Presents an actual counseling session using object relations therapy followed by a group discussion analyzing the session.

Originally issued on videocassette by Allyn & Bacon, 1997. Accompanying instructor's guide written by Randall C. Wyatt and Eileen Flanagan.