John Benjamins Publishing Company
Empathic practices in client-centred psychotherapies
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Abstract
We explore how client-centred empathy is practiced within a specific interaction type: troubles telling sequences. Building on the work of Carl Rogers, who viewed empathy as a form of understanding that privileges the client’s point of view, empathy is examined as an interactional achievement in which clients create empathic opportunities by displaying their affectual stance, followed by therapists taking up these opportunities through affiliative displays. We found that empathic practices could be realized through a variety of verbal (naming other’s feelings, formulations, co-completions) and non-verbal resources (nodding, smiling). Further, we found that continuers played an important role in helping clients to develop their troubles stance in more detail, which, in turn, invited more explicit empathic displays from therapists.
Abstract
We explore how client-centred empathy is practiced within a specific interaction type: troubles telling sequences. Building on the work of Carl Rogers, who viewed empathy as a form of understanding that privileges the client’s point of view, empathy is examined as an interactional achievement in which clients create empathic opportunities by displaying their affectual stance, followed by therapists taking up these opportunities through affiliative displays. We found that empathic practices could be realized through a variety of verbal (naming other’s feelings, formulations, co-completions) and non-verbal resources (nodding, smiling). Further, we found that continuers played an important role in helping clients to develop their troubles stance in more detail, which, in turn, invited more explicit empathic displays from therapists.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Discourses of helping professions 1
- How practitioners deal with their clients' "off-track" talk 13
- Empathic practices in client-centred psychotherapies 33
- The interactional accomplishment of feelings-talk in psychotherapy and executive coaching 59
- “Making one’s path while walking with a clear head” 91
- Form, function and particularities of discursive practices in one-on-one supervision in Germany 123
- "I mean is that right?" 157
- Professional roles in a medical telephone helpline 179
- Anticipatory reactions 205
- “Doctor vs. patient” 227
- Time pressure and digressive speech patterns in doctor-patient consultations 257
- Neurologists' approaches to making psychosocial attributions in patients with functional neurological symptoms 289
- Name index 315
- Subject index 319
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Discourses of helping professions 1
- How practitioners deal with their clients' "off-track" talk 13
- Empathic practices in client-centred psychotherapies 33
- The interactional accomplishment of feelings-talk in psychotherapy and executive coaching 59
- “Making one’s path while walking with a clear head” 91
- Form, function and particularities of discursive practices in one-on-one supervision in Germany 123
- "I mean is that right?" 157
- Professional roles in a medical telephone helpline 179
- Anticipatory reactions 205
- “Doctor vs. patient” 227
- Time pressure and digressive speech patterns in doctor-patient consultations 257
- Neurologists' approaches to making psychosocial attributions in patients with functional neurological symptoms 289
- Name index 315
- Subject index 319
