Research on rehabilitation counseling has generally focused on the roles and functions of the counselor, client attributes as moderator variables affecting counseling outcome and selected counselor traits thought necessary for the development of effective counseling techniques. After an analysis of the literature, two variables, counselor anxiety and counselor tolerance of ambiguity, are hypothesized to augment rehabilitation counselor selection procedures, help explain why certain counselors engage in selected roles and functions, and to account for some of the variance in case difficulty studies. A theoretical rationale for the importance of the variables in rehabilitation counseling is given and research establishing the inter-relationships of the variables presented. In addition, a paradigm using counselor/client anxiety and tolerance of ambiguity interactions is offered, and reasons for incorporating the variables in counselor research and supervision are discussed. (Author)