Self-reflective talk in group counselling

Abstract

Reflective processing is a joint social action that develops in interaction. Using conversation analysis and discursive psychology, this article focuses on self-reflective turns of talk in group counselling for adults at risk of Type 2 diabetes. We show how reflective processing unfolds in patterns of interaction, wherein group members take an observing, evaluating or interpreting position towards their own actions and experiences. Self-reflective talk is neither exclusively dependent on counsellors' actions nor limited to the niches the counselling programme structure offers. Self-reflective talk is one method of generating joint reflective processing. Such talk makes a topic available for discussion by connecting details of counselling with individuals' experiences and enabling sharing. Self-reflective talk thus serves as a way for group members to participate in constructing a lifestyle problem, to invite or provide sharing of experiences and to display their orientation to the institutional task at hand. KeywordsCognition, conversation analysis, counselling, discursive psychology, ethnomethodology, group counselling, group discussion, group interaction, health behaviour change, health counselling, interaction process, reflection, self-reflection iii Autobiographical note Aija Logren (M.Soc.Sc) is a social psychologist and doctoral student at the University of Tampere.Her research focuses on group interaction in counselling situations and on socially shared cognition.Johanna Ruusuvuori (Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Tampere) has vast experience in analysing interaction in various contexts of health care. She has published widely on practices equivalent or close to counselling, empathy and participation in health care consultations, and qualitative methods.Jaana Laitinen (Adjunct Professor in Nutrition and in Public Health, Director) specializes in intervention studies aiming to promote healthy lifestyles and work ability. Additionally, she has studied the development of unhealthy behaviours in an epidemiological prospective study of Northern Finland 1966 and 1986 cohort studies.

Innovative Experience Of Applying The Reflexive Dialogue Model For Students With Disabilities

“…The reflexive dialogue is performed as the social reflection where its content is represented not only as the rational experience of skills and knowledge but also as the emotional states and where personal emotions revealed in interpersonal relations while solving different life situations. The social reflection principles are correlated with those that are defined by the researchers as a self-reflective talk in group counseling (Logren, Ruusuvuori, & Laitinen, 2017) In a horizontal way there are reflexive and personal functions in the process of creative solving the tasks ("motive", "intention", "value", "idea", "plan", "action"). The creative one is the entire cycle to solve the problem where the main point is reassessment and transition to the new way of thinking about the problem and its reflexive resolution.…”

Stories of Change: Comparative Time-Framed Experience Telling in Health Promotion Group Discussions

“…Hence, second stories are considered to have a therapeutic effect. Our own previous studies have shown that sharing and addressing experiences is a central activity in group discussions, and that they are closely intertwined with practices of stance-taking (Logren et al, 2017a(Logren et al, , 2017bLogren, Ruusuvuori, & Laitinen, 2019)-that is, the ways in which participants in interaction evaluate the topics of talk, position themselves in relation to these topics, and align their positionings in relation to those of the other participants (Du Bois, 2007;Du Bois & Kärkkäinen, 2012).…”

“…In institutional group work, such as health promotion groups, talking about experiences is one of the central ways in which the objectives of the group are pursued (Borek & Abraham, 2018; Cormack, Jones, & Maltby, 2018; Due-Christensen, Zoffmann, Hommel, & Lau, 2012; Frigerio & Montali, 2016; Kennedy, Rogers, & Crossley, 2007; Logren, Ruusuvuori, & Laitinen, 2017a, 2017b; Lund, Argentzell, Leufstadius, Tjörnstrand, & Eklund, 2019; Mazanderani, Locock, & Powell, 2012; Öster, Hedestig, Johansson, Klingstedt, & Lindh, 2013; Patterson, Fleming, & Doig, 2019). Nevertheless, talking about experiences poses a practical dilemma for the participants: how to manage, on one hand, the uniqueness of an individual experience and, on the other hand, the accessibility, shareability, and comparability of experiences—and thus, how to address the claims participants make on the grounds of their experiences?…”

“It sounds silly now, but it was important then”: Supporting the significance of a personal experience in psychotherapy

“…SXB-contrasts can also be regarded as a form of self-reflective talk, whereby people "take an observing, evaluating or interpreting position towards their own actions and experiences" (Logren et al, 2017, p. 422). As an example of this, Logren et al (2017) show the case of a client attending a nutritional support group who reflects on her habit of quickly eating pastries in the car as "the most pitiful thing that I like do in my life" (pp. 431-432).…”