Discourse processes and the social organization of group therapy sessions

Abstract

The social organization of group therapy sessions held in a community mental health center is investigated by analysing transcripts of audiotaped and videotaped sessions as well as ethnographic data (field notes and interviews). After describing the structural (i.e. hierarchical and sequential organization of activities during sessions, discourse processes by which group members accomplish this structure are examined. Analyses of participants' communicative strategies provide insights into the cognitive and behavioral components of the interactive competence required of group members. In contrast to findings of previous research on group therapy, interactive control is found to be distributed among certain clients as well as the therapists.

Negotiating a pathological identity in the clinical dialogue: Discourse analysis of a family therapy

“…Moreover, it is perhaps not surprising, given the shared theoretical basis in postmodernism and social constructionism of discourse analysis and systemic therapy, that the majority of the published discourse analytic studies of psychotherapy sessions concern systemic therapy (e.g. Guilfoyle, 2002; Hare‐Mustin, 1994; Kogan, 1998; Kogan & Gale, 1997; Kogan & Brown, 1998; Roy‐Chowdhury, 2003; Soal & Kottler, 1996; Stancombe & White, 1997) with a few exceptions of individual psychotherapy (Ferrara, 1992), psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy (Finlay & Robertson, 1990; Lewis, 1995; Madill & Barkham, 1997; Madill & Doherty, 1994; Nye, 1994), feminist psychodynamic therapy (Burman, 1992a, 1995), group therapy (Vandewater, 1983; Wodak, 1981), and cognitive‐behavioural therapy (Messari & Hallam, 2003).…”