Many research efforts have focused on the effect of client and counselor sex on the process and outcome of counseling. It was hypothesized that same-sex counselor-client dyads would develop a more open, empathic relationship than would opposite-sex dyads, and that this would be reflected in the number of sessions the counseling dyad spent together. The relationship between client attendance at the first counseling session and sex of the assigned counselor was also investigated. Client subjects were students who sought personal counseling. Preliminary findings did not support the hypothesis. Significant differences in number of counseling sessions between same-sex and opposite-sex counseling dyads were not found; the amount of time the dyad worked together depended more on the type of problem presented by the client than on the sex-pairing of counselor and client. The results support previous findings that neither same- nor opposite-sex pairing is a predictor of counseling process or outcome. No relationship was found between the sex of the counselor and attendance at the first counseling session. These preliminary results suggest that same- or opposite-sex pairings have no appreciable effect on the counseling process as measured by number of sessions. (Author/CS)