“…Social scientists (Tardy & Dindia, 2006: 229; Gordon, 2011: 72) have pursued this line of enquiry since seminal work brought it into academic focus half a century ago (Jourard & Lasakow, 1958; Jourard, 1971; Cozby, 1972; Chelune et al, 1979). Self-disclosure has primarily been explored as a communication issue (see, Hargie, Dickson, Mallett, & Stringer, 2008; Chen & Nakazawa, 2009; Croucher, Faulkner, & Long, 2010; Diverniero & Hosek, 2011; Jiang, Bazarova, & Hancock, 2011; Tian, 2011) but has also attracted interest in a variety of other disciplines including psychotherapy and social psychology (see, Jourard & Lakasow, 1958; Jourard, 1971; Chelune et al, 1979: 2; Doster & Nesbitt, 1979; Kelly & McKillop, 1996; Petronio, Reeder, Hecht, & Ros-Mendoza, 1996; Omarzu, 2000; Antaki, Barnes, & Leudar, 2005; Derlega, Winstead, Mathews & Braitman, 2008: 115; Gelso & Palma, 2011). The underlying assumption of works from psychology and psychotherapy has been that self-disclosure is healthy or therapeutic and that repressing personal feelings is not (Antaki, Barnes, & Leudar, 2005; Pasupathi, McLean, & Weeks, 2009: 92).…”