Abstract
Affiliative talk about personal experiences, that is, talk that supports the person’s affective stance towards the experience, is important in all types of counselling. Often, however, this is not the only or even the main goal of the counselling. We investigate what interactional practices counsellors use to facilitate group members’ affiliative talk about their personal experiences in a problem focused, health promotion group counselling. The findings are based on a conversation analysis of 23 video-recorded group counselling sessions. We present four interactional practices by counsellors for facilitating participants’ talk about their personal experiences in relation to other group members’ experiences. We demonstrate that each interactional practice sets up a different space for telling about one’s experiences in an affiliative way. Loosely designed questions about group members’ thoughts at the end of an assignment seem to engender stretches of affiliative talk about personal experiences very efficiently. We suggest that even if the counselling is focused on solving group members’ problems, it should include time for loosely structured discussions among group members to support affiliative talk.
Funding statement: This work was supported by the European Union Social Fund [grant number S20172] and the Strategic Research Council (SRC) at the Academy of Finland [grant numbers 303430, 303432].
Appendix
Transcription symbols
[ ] | Overlapping talk |
(.) | A pause of less than 0.2 seconds |
(0.0) | Pause: silence measured in seconds and tenths of a second |
WORD | Talk louder volume than the surrounding talk |
word | Accented sound or syllable |
.hh | An in breath |
hh | An out breath |
£word£ | Spoken in a smiley voice |
@word@ | Spoken in an animated voice |
#word# | Spoken in a creaky voice |
wo(h)rd | Laugh particle inserted within a word |
((word)) | Transcriber’s comments |
- | Abrupt cut-off of preceding sound |
>word< | Talk faster than the surrounding talk |
<word> | Talk slower than the surrounding talk |
↑ | Rise in pitch |
? | Final rising intonation |
, | Final level intonation |
. | Final falling intonation |
References
Arminen, Ilkka. 2004. Second stories: The salience of interpersonal communication for mutual help in Alcoholics Anonymous. Journal of Pragmatics 36(2). 319–347.10.1016/j.pragma.2003.07.001Search in Google Scholar
Arminen, Ilkka. 2005. Institutional interaction. Studies of talk at work. Aldershot: Ashgate.Search in Google Scholar
Cooper, Mick & John McLeod. 2011. Pluralistic counselling and psychotherapy. Longon: Sage.Search in Google Scholar
Duff, Carlton T. & Robinder P. Bedi. 2010. Counsellor behaviours that predict therapeutic alliance: From the client’s perspective. Counselling Psychology Quarterly 23(1). 91–11.10.1080/09515071003688165Search in Google Scholar
Feng, Bo. 2014. When should advice be given? Assessing the role of sequential placement of advice in supportive interactions in two cultures. Communication Research 41(7). 913–934.10.1177/0093650212456203Search in Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli, Maria Vilkuna, Riitta Korhonen, Vesa Koivisto, Tarja Riitta Heinonen & Irja Alho. 2004. Iso suomen kielioppi[Extensive Finnish Grammar]. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.Search in Google Scholar
Halonen, Mia. 2008. Person reference as a device for constructing experiences as typical in group therapy. In Anssi Peräkylä, Charles Antaki, Sanna Vehviläinen & Ivan Leudar (eds.), Conversation analysis and psychotherapy, 139–151. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511490002.009Search in Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 2011. Territories of knowledge, territories of experience: empathic moments in interaction. In Tanya Stivers, Lorenza Mondada & Jakob Steensig (eds.), The morality of knowledge in conversation, 159–183. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511921674.008Search in Google Scholar
Heritage, John & Steven Clayman. 2010. Talk in action. Interactions, identities, and institutions. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.10.1002/9781444318135Search in Google Scholar
Heritage, John & Sue Sefi. 1992. Dilemmas of advice: Aspects of the delivery and reception of advice in interactions between health visitors and first-time mothers. In Paul Drew & John Heritage (eds.), Talk at work, 359–417. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Hjulstad, Johan. 2016. Practices of organizing built space in videoconference-mediated interactions. Research on Language and Social Interaction 49(4). 325–341.10.1080/08351813.2016.1199087Search in Google Scholar
Horvath, Adam. 2001. The alliance. Psychotherapy 4. 365–372.10.1037/0033-3204.38.4.365Search in Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail. 1988. On the sequential organization of troubles talk in ordinary conversation. Social Problems 35(4). 418–441.10.2307/800595Search in Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail & John R. E. Lee. 1981. The rejection of advice: Managing the problematic convergence of a ʻtroubles-tellingʼ and a ʻservice encounterʼ. Journal of Pragmatics 5(5). 399–422.10.1016/0378-2166(81)90026-6Search in Google Scholar
Kaufman, Samantha & Whitehead Kevin. 2016. Producing, ratifying, and resisting support in an online support forum. Health 22(3). 223–239.Search in Google Scholar
Lindström, Anna & Marja-Leena Sorjonen. 2013. Affiliation in conversation. In Jack Sidnell & Tanya Stivers (eds.), The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, 350–369. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.10.1002/9781118325001.ch17Search in Google Scholar
Logren, Aija, Johanna Ruusuvuori & Jaana Laitinen. 2017. Self-reflective talk in group counselling. Discourse Studies 19(4). 422–440.10.1177/1461445617706771Search in Google Scholar
Olbertz-Siitonen, Margarethe. 2015. Transmission delay in technology-mediated interaction at work. PsychNology Journal 13(2–3). 203–234.Search in Google Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1986. Extreme case formulations: A way of legitimizing claims. Human Studies 9(2–3). 219–229.10.1093/oso/9780190927431.003.0014Search in Google Scholar
Potter, Jonathan & Alexa Hepburn. 2010. Putting aspiration into word: ‘Laugh particles’, managing descriptive trouble and modulating action. Journal of Pragmatics 42(6). 1543–1555.10.1016/j.pragma.2009.10.003Search in Google Scholar
Ruusuvuori, Johanna. 2005. “Empathy” and “Sympathy” in action: Attending to patients’ troubles in Finnish homeopathic and general practice consultations. Social Psychology Quarterly 68(3). 204–222.10.1177/019027250506800302Search in Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1992a. Lectures on conversation. Vol. 1. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey. 1992b. Lectures on conversation. Vol. 2. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Simoni, Jane, Julie Franks, Keren Lehavot & Samantha Yard. 2011. Peer interventions to promote health: Conceptual considerations. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 81(3). 351–359.10.1111/j.1939-0025.2011.01103.xSearch in Google Scholar
Tiitinen, Sanni, Elina Weiste, Johanna Ruusuvuori & Jaana Laitinen. 2018. Ryhmäohjauksen vuorovaikutusmekanismit vertaistuen kokemusten taustalla [Interactional mechanisms explaining the experiences of peer support in group counseling]. Psykologia 53. 358–375.Search in Google Scholar
Vatanen, Anna. 2014. Responding in overlap: Agency, epistemicity and social action in conversation. Helsinki: University of Helsinki dissertation. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-0280-5 (accessed 11 June 2018).Search in Google Scholar
Voutilainen, Liisa, Anssi Peräkylä & Johanna Ruusuvuori. 2010. Recognition and Interpretation: Responding to emotional experience in psychotherapy. Research on Language and Social Interaction 43. 85–107.10.1080/08351810903474799Search in Google Scholar
Wampold, Bruce. 2001. The great psychotherapy debate: Models, methods, and findings. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Search in Google Scholar
Weiste, Elina. 2016. Formulations in occupational therapy: Managing talk about psychiatric outpatients’ emotional states. Journal of Pragmatics 105. 59–73.10.1016/j.pragma.2016.08.007Search in Google Scholar
Weiste, Elina & Anssi Peräkylä. 2013. A comparative conversation analytic study of formulations in psychoanalysis and cognitive psychotherapy. Research on Language and Social Interaction 46(4). 299–321.10.1080/08351813.2013.839093Search in Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Sue & Celia Kitzinger. 2006. Surprise as an interactional achievement: Reaction tokens in conversation. Social Psychology Quarterly 69(2). 150–182.10.1177/019027250606900203Search in Google Scholar
Notes
In all extracts, C1 and C2 refer to the counsellors, and other identifiers use the first letter of the group members’ pseudonym. The first line presents the talk in Finnish and the second line an idiomatic translation in English. To present a detailed CA-analysis of turn-taking would require a morpheme-by-morpheme translation. However, our analysis does not address turn-taking in such detail. Transcription symbols are presented in the Appendix.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston