There is an ongoing debate as to whether alcoholism counselors who are non-alcoholics can be as effective with alcoholic clients as counselors who are themselves recovering from alcoholism. This study compared the impact of the recovering alcoholic counselor and the non-alcoholic counselor on alcoholic clients' perceived belongingness with treatment peers, as well as on length of stay in treatment and relapse rate in a residential treatment center. Two hundred chronic, recidivistic adult male alcoholics admitted to a 90-day all-male residential treatment program over a 4-year period were randomly assigned to one of four counselors: male alcoholic, female alcoholic, male non-alcoholic, or female non-alcoholic. Based on results of structured interviews conducted at 2-week intervals during their stay, clients were categorized at the end of treatment into either the isolate, dyad, cluster, or variant grouping. Treatment outcome was measured by length of stay in the program and rate of relapse during the program. Counselor gender did not seem to be an important factor with respect to client-perceived emotional attachment, length of stay, or relapse rate. The results suggest that a counselor's recovering status does not seem to have any more impact on the clients' perception of belongingness among their peers or on length of stay or relapse rate than that of non-alcoholic counselors. (NB)