Burdett-etal2019
| Burdett-etal2019 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Burdett-etal2019 |
| Author(s) | Mark Burdett, Marco Pino, Nima Moghaddam, Thomas Schröder |
| Title | “It sounds silly now, but it was important then”: Supporting the significance of a personal experience in psychotherapy |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Conversation analysis, Delicacy, Experience, Meta-talk, Psychotherapy |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2019 |
| Language | English |
| City | |
| Month | |
| Journal | Journal of Pragmatics |
| Volume | 148 |
| Number | |
| Pages | 12-25 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.pragma.2019.05.007 |
| ISBN | |
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Abstract
The article examines a previously undocumented practice whereby psychotherapy clients support the significance of their experience against the background of how it can other- wise be heard. This practice is the phrase “it sounds X, but Y” (e.g., “which sounds silly now, but was like important then”). We call this an SXB-contrast. We used conversation analysis to examine 21 instances of this phenomenon, identified in 12 audio-recorded individual psychotherapy sessions involving 10 clients and 8 therapists. Clients use SXB-contrasts to mark part of their talk as delicate, specifically by voicing an unsympathetic hearing of that talk whilst supporting its experiential significance. Evi- dence for our claims comes from clients’ use of SXB-contrasts in association with practices of speech delivery (e.g., laughter) and self-repair operations which also establish a part of their talk as delicate. Therapist responses provide additional supporting evidence. The study contributes to understanding how clients can use meta-talk to convey the meaning of their experiences in therapy whilst also making available their own emerging awareness of the multiple meanings of those experiences.
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