Establishing rapport and developing an alliance are crucial to counseling success in any context and from virtually all theoretical perspectives. This chapter describes how counselors can break down initial resistance, gather information, and get to know difficult young clients, while at the same time establish rapport and develop a therapeutic alliance. It focuses on initial connection, informal assessment procedures, and other ways to build rapport while beginning counseling. Young clients are more likely to crave novelty, rapt attention, authenticity, and entertainment. The chapter offers suggestions to enhance the counselor's rapport‐building efforts. The purpose of informed consent and role induction or an explanation of assessment and counseling procedures, is to help clients understand how counseling works and the role they play in the process.