Growing interest in the form and function of "social support" led to three small studies involving comparisons between behaviour therapists and social supporters (hair stylists) in terms of the help they provided with clients' emotional problems. The first compared observations of both groups in interaction with their routine clients, finding some overlap in their speech form (e.g. "reassurance") but that overall the groups provided significantly different forms of help. The second study, based on a questionnaire survey, yielded similar results on the form of interactions between these groups and suggested in addition that their functions were distinctive. Together, these studies indicated that therapists and stylists differed in the form and the function of their helping work with clients. The final study went on to examine how behaviour therapists could help stylists to develop their social support role, finding a significant training effect and evidence of its generalization to clients. Implications drawn include enhancing the distinctive role of behaviour therapists in such "community care" interventions.