TY - JOUR
T1 - Conversation analysis of the two-chair self-soothing task in emotion-focused therapy
AU - Sutherland, Olga
AU - Peräkylä, Anssi
AU - Elliott, Robert
N1 - Acceptance date: 15/01/2014. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Psychotherapy Research on 23/02/2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10503307.2014.885146.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Despite an increasing recognition of the relevance and significance of self-compassion processes, little research has explored interventions that seek to enhance these in therapy. In this study, we used conversation analysis to examine the compassionate self-soothing task of emotion-focused therapy involving two-chair work, with seven clients. The analysis yielded a detailed description of interactional practices and processes involved in the accomplishment of self-soothing, drawing on Goffman’s concept of the participation frame. In this article we show how therapists and clients collaborate to move from the ordinary frame of therapeutic conversation to a self-soothing frame and back again. Furthermore, we show that in this movement between the frames, they make use of a number interactional practices: therapists' instructions to clients, specific ways of sequencing actions in interaction, explanations and justification of the importance of the self-soothing task, pronouns as a way to distinguish among addressees (e.g., clients versus soothing agents), corrections of clients’ talk, and response tokens (hm mm, yeah, good). These practices are used to help clients accomplish self-soothing in the form of self-praise, disclosing caring, and offering of helpful advice.
AB - Despite an increasing recognition of the relevance and significance of self-compassion processes, little research has explored interventions that seek to enhance these in therapy. In this study, we used conversation analysis to examine the compassionate self-soothing task of emotion-focused therapy involving two-chair work, with seven clients. The analysis yielded a detailed description of interactional practices and processes involved in the accomplishment of self-soothing, drawing on Goffman’s concept of the participation frame. In this article we show how therapists and clients collaborate to move from the ordinary frame of therapeutic conversation to a self-soothing frame and back again. Furthermore, we show that in this movement between the frames, they make use of a number interactional practices: therapists' instructions to clients, specific ways of sequencing actions in interaction, explanations and justification of the importance of the self-soothing task, pronouns as a way to distinguish among addressees (e.g., clients versus soothing agents), corrections of clients’ talk, and response tokens (hm mm, yeah, good). These practices are used to help clients accomplish self-soothing in the form of self-praise, disclosing caring, and offering of helpful advice.
KW - self-compassion
KW - two-chair intervention
KW - emotion-focused therapy
KW - conversation analysis
KW - self-kindness
KW - self-soothing
UR - http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tpsr20#.Ut-rF_vFJkg
U2 - 10.1080/10503307.2014.885146
DO - 10.1080/10503307.2014.885146
M3 - Article
SN - 1050-3307
VL - 24
SP - 738
EP - 751
JO - Psychotherapy Research
JF - Psychotherapy Research
IS - 6
ER -