“…While social work has done an admirable job of highlighting the necessity of family, community, and other social support relationships, the importance of friendships has been largely ignored in social work practice literature. This is lamentable since supportive friendships have been shown to be essential for psychosocial development (Clark & Ayers, 1991;Hartup, 1979Hartup, , 1983Hartup, & 1989Hutter, 2001;Linden, 2003;Roff, 1963), school and social functioning (Flannagan & Bradley, 1999), emotional health (Asher & Paquette, 2003), and lead to resiliency in many client populations (Berndt, 1989;Fraser, 1997;Miller & Fritz, 1998). As managed care and privatization have led to sharp decreases in the number and scope of services for many clients (Dorwart & Epstein, 1993;Dumont, 1996), social workers must rely on different types of natural social supports in helping restore clients to equilibrium and optimal functioning.…”