Psychotherapy is sometimes referred to as ‘talk therapy’ because the treatment method consists of the interaction between therapist and client. The different approaches and models of psychotherapy can differ radically in their focus, duration and the psychological theories on which they are based, however, outcome studies have found that all therapies are equally beneficial. So, while it is clear that psychotherapy works, it is not as clear what it is that makes it work. Because psychotherapy is conducted through talk, it seems logical to investigate the talk itself to gain insight into how therapy works.
This study aims to contribute to psychotherapy process research by analysing the talk which occurs between therapist and client in actual psychotherapy sessions using Conversation Analysis.
Conversation Analysis (CA) is an empirical approach to the study of talk-in-interaction and uses naturally occurring recordings of talk as its data. CA assumes that talk is an orderly accomplishment which is produced and maintained by the participants themselves. It is then the job of the analyst to expose and describe the discursive practices which emerge from the talk. CA is a valuable approach to the study of psychotherapy because it is the study of naturally occurring talk and talk is the medium through which psychotherapy is conducted. On a small scale, this project will contribute to the growing body of research within CA which investigates psychotherapy talk. On a larger scale, however, this project will contribute to understanding of the psychotherapeutic process in general. Because CA is a micro-analysis, I do not propose being able to completely answer the important question of why or how psychotherapy works. I will, however, contribute to a body of knowledge which takes steps towards this by looking at how participants actually do psychotherapy.