Students who pursue a helping profession commonly express a desire to ‘help’ and ‘understand’ others, often with minimal awareness of the origins of that desire. Most of the studies conducted in the helping profession field, which will be presented in this thesis, suggest that the motivation underlying the career choice of helping professionals may include a desire to resolve personal adverse childhood experiences (ACE), specifically the experience of parentification. Parentification is the process of role reversal between the child and the parent, whereby the child provides support and acts as the caregiver for the parent, instead of being supported and taken care of. The aim of this thesis is to examine the current literature concerning the concept of parentification, whereby children take on caregiving roles. The theoretical framework for the occurrence of the phenomenon is presented. The transgenerational transmission of the caregiving role and its long-term effects are explored. Implications for clinical practice are put forward. Specifically, studies presented in this thesis suggest that the experience of parentification plays a potential role when choosing a career in the helping profession field. Additionally, the effects of parentification on personal and professional life are explored. Findings presented in the thesis indicate that there is a need to explore further the phenomenon of parentification among helping professionals, while strengthening the support system for students, future helping professionals, and other helping practitioners.