Paying Attention to Therapy Discourse: Identifying Therapy Processes and Practice in Talk about Talk

ABSTRACT

Therapy discourse between the client and clinician has specific objectives to ameliorate problems associated with communication and swallowing disorders and is highly specialized. Analysis of this interaction that is the essence of therapy demonstrates the roles played by participants, revealing layers of meaning and assisting clinicians to redefine and refine their ideas about therapy. In this article, the authors analyze a series of extracts of therapy interaction to explore how therapy rapport is coconstructed by participants through talking and how roles are negotiated during the process of problem solving in therapy.

KEYWORDS

Clinical discourse analysis - therapy processes - therapy roles - language

REFERENCES

• 1 Goffman E. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York, NY; Harper and Row 1974
• 2 Panagos J M, Bliss L S. Presuppositions for speech therapy lessons.  Comm Disord Quart. 1990;  13 19-28
• 3 Kovarsky D, Maxwell M M. Ethnography and the clinical setting: communicative expectancies in clinical discourse.  Top Lang Disord. 1992;  12 76-84
• 4 Coulthard M. An Introduction to Discourse Analysis. London, United Kingdom; Longman 1985
• 5 Coupland J, Robinson J D, Coupland N. Frame negotiation in doctor—elderly patient consultations.  Discourse Soc. 1994;  5 89-124
• 6 Prutting C A, Bagshaw N, Goldstein H, Justowitz S, Umen I. Clinician-child discourse: some preliminary questions.  J Speech Hear Disord. 1978;  43 123-129
• 7 Leahy M M. Therapy talk: analyzing clinical discourse.  Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2004;  35 70-81
• 8 Fisher S. Institutional authority and the structure of discourse.  Discourse Process. 1984;  7 201-224
• 9 Thomson M. Helping doctors with bedside manner. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/health/7307572.stm Accessed April 7, 2008
• 10 Kovarsky D. Discourse markers in adult-controlled therapy: implications for child centered intervention.  Comm Disord Quart. 1990;  13 29-41
• 11 Schiffrin D. Speaking for another in sociolinguistic interviews: alignments, identities, and frames. In: Tannen D Framing in Discourse. New York, NY; Oxford University Press 1993: 231-263
• 12 Dictionary available at:. http://www.Dictionary.com accessed March 16, 2008
• 13 Corcoran J A, Stewart M. Stories of stuttering: a qualitative analysis of interview narratives.  J Fluency Disord. 1998;  23 247-264
• 14 Van Riper C. Action Therapy (videotapes). Memphis, TN; Speech Foundation of America 1977
• 15 Leahy M M. Multiple voices in Charles Van Riper's desensitization therapy.  Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2008;  43 69-80
• 16 Goffman E. Forms of Talk. Philadelphia, PA; University of Pennsylvania Press 1981
• 17 Simmons-Mackie N, Schultz M. The role of humor in therapy for aphasia.  Aphasiology. 2003;  17 751-766
• 18 Fairclough N. Language and Power. London, United Kingdom; Longman 1989
• 19 Brown P, Levinson S C. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge, United Kingdom; Cambridge University Press 1987
• 20 Coupland J, Coupland N, Robinson J D. “How are you?” Negotiating phatic communion.  Language Soc. 1992;  21 207-230
• 21 Hutchby I. Power in discourse: the case of arguments on British talk radio show. In: Jaworski J, Coupland N The Discourse Reader. London, United Kingdom; Routledge 1999: 576-588
• 22 Foucault M. Power/Knowledge. London, United Kingdom; Harvester 1977