The language of therapy.

Small, John J.; Manthei, Robert J.

doi:10.1037/h0085630

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…Clients, on the other hand, tended to respond in a complementarity manner by following therapist ↑ messages with ↓ messages and vice versa. These findings, considered along with the significant predominance of complementarity over symmetry is consistent with the view of Small and Manthei (1986), who suggested that unlike most other social conversations, the language of therapy is inherently complementary. That is, individual clients are usually “disadvantaged in ways which enable therapists to maintain the relationship as a complementary one; clients often find therapy so novel and complex that they need to experience it for some time before they are able to understand it, and they are often in distress and therefore more compliant” (Small & Manthei, 1986, pp.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Complementarity and symmetry in family therapy communication.

Heatherington¹,

Friedlander²

1990

Journal of Counseling Psychology

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We examined relational control communication patterns in systemic family therapy sessions. Therapist interactions with each family member (N = 29 families) were examined with the Family Relational Communication Control Coding System. Results showed significantly more complementarity, which reflects mutuality in the definition of a relationship, than symmetry, which characterizes relational control competition. Transitional probabilities showed that family members were likely to respond to therapists in a complementary manner (following therapist one-up, |, messages with one-down, [, messages and vice versa); therapists were likely to respond to client f and J, messages in either a competitive symmetrical or complementary manner. Neither complementarity nor symmetry was predictive of family members' perceptions of the therapeutic alliance as measured by Couple and Family Therapy Alliance Scales.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Complementarity and symmetry in family therapy communication.

Heatherington¹,

Friedlander²

1990

Journal of Counseling Psychology

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“…Although it is almost axiomatic that help is given through the medium of conversation in psychotherapy (Labov & Fanshel, 1977), there has been little systematic research on the language of psychotherapy. In their recent review, Small & Manthei (1986) describe several research programs that attempt to study the linguistic properties of therapeutic interaction. Unlike traditional content analyses of therapy, which tend to use concepts I wish to thank H. B. Pepinsky for comments on an earlier draft of this article.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic analysis of an assertiveness training film.

Gervasio¹

1988

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training

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Recent research on the linguistic properties of the conversation of client and therapist has not included the study of those behavior therapies that attempt to change communication patterns directly. This study places assertiveness training in the context of the study of conversation. The stylistic complexity and verb usage in the text of the filmResponsible Assertion was analyzed using the Computer-Assisted Language Analysis System (CALAS). As predicted, the narration and instruction were wordy and stylistically complex with many embedded clauses. Assertive role-plays were more complex than passive ones. There were more cognitive and action verbs used than affective (feeling) verbs. These findings are consistent with an analogue study of assertive and passive role-players.

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“…Supervisors' of marital and family therapy agree that beginning therapists need to be trained in language skills (Glaser, 1980;Haber, 1990;Rambo, 1989;Small & Manthei, 1986;Winkle, Piercy, & Hovestadt, 1981). When supervisors train beginning marital and family therapists to become more competent in language skills, they often find this training complicated by developmental (Warburton, Newberry, & Alexander, 1989;Wheeler, Avis, Miller, & Chaney, 1989), gender (Reid, McDaniel, Donaldson, & Tollers, 1987;Roberts, 1991 ;Shields & McDaniel, 1992;Storm, 1991 ;Taggart, 1989), and cultural (Lappin, 1983;McGoldrick & Garcia-Preto, 1984) differences in each beginning therapist.…”

Section: Implications Of the Use Of Film Clips For Mft Training In Ac...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Brief Report: On an Exercise for Training Beginning Marital and Family Therapists in Language Skills

Latz

1996

J Marital Family Therapy

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Summary This paper is a brief report on the administration and outcome of an experiential exercise for training beginning martial and family therapists in language skills. The exercise consists of two parts. In the first part, only the audio of a film clip is engaged, and participants are asked to describe what they heard. During the second part, both the audio and video of this clip are presented together and the participants are again asked for a description. This exercise is used to sensitize beginning therapists to the possibility of their own and their clients' idiosyncratic application of words during a therapy session.

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The language of therapy.

Abstract: content, intersubjective, and extralinguistic. These three reasons form the structure of much of this article, in which an attempt is made to link more closely the fields of linguistics and psychology in the study of therapy.

Cited by 6 publications

References 43 publications

Complementarity and symmetry in family therapy communication.

Complementarity and symmetry in family therapy communication.

Linguistic analysis of an assertiveness training film.

Brief Report: On an Exercise for Training Beginning Marital and Family Therapists in Language Skills

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