Therapeutic conversation

Liisa Voutilainen & Anssi Peräkylä
Table of contents

Psychotherapeutic conversation is a specific form of institutional talk (see Drew & Heritage 1992 and Heritage & Clayman 2010 for a discussion of the range of differences between institutional and everyday talk). Unlike everyday conversation, it has a pre-ordained, mutually agreed upon and specific purpose – which is, in general terms, to improve the client’s mental health – and, like any institutional encounter between a practitioner and client, it entails an asymmetric conversational relationship between participants (in this case, for example, one asks questions, the other conveys his/her troubles). But unlike many other institutions, psychotherapy does not always maintain “businesslike” emotional neutrality: it can resemble everyday conversation between friends, involving disclosures of personal experiences and emotional expression and response.

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