Providing counseling services to clients in rural areas entails special problems that are particularly unique to rural areas, such as geographic isolation, general suspiciousness toward outsiders, and community resistance to agency services. In order to effectively relate to rural Appalachians, counselors must be sensitive to the rural population's needs, values, and norms, and also aware of their own attitudes toward rural inhabitants. Some basic strategies which counselors should consider in the development of counseling services include the following: (1) defining the counselor role in less "counselor-client" terms by acting as a teacher or vocational advisor; (2) seeing clients in their own settings and leisure activities; (3) being less formal and structured while counseling; (4) involving the client's whole family; (5) becoming part of the community; and (6) using local individuals as assistants where possible. (HLM)