Part of
Discourses of Helping ProfessionsEdited by Eva-Maria Graf, Marlene Sator and Thomas Spranz-Fogasy
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 252] 2014
► pp. 33–57
Edited by Eva-Maria Graf, Marlene Sator and Thomas Spranz-Fogasy
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 252] 2014
► pp. 33–57
Empathic practices in client-centred psychotherapies
Displaying understanding and affiliation with clients
We explore how client-centred empathy is practiced within a specific interaction type: troubles telling sequences. Building on the work of Carl Rogers, who viewed empathy as a form of understanding that privileges the client’s point of view, empathy is examined as an interactional achievement in which clients create empathic opportunities by displaying their affectual stance, followed by therapists taking up these opportunities through affiliative displays. We found that empathic practices could be realized through a variety of verbal (naming other’s feelings, formulations, co-completions) and non-verbal resources (nodding, smiling). Further, we found that continuers played an important role in helping clients to develop their troubles stance in more detail, which, in turn, invited more explicit empathic displays from therapists.
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Elliott, Robert, Arthur C. Bohart, Dale G. Larson, Peter Muntigl & Olga Smoliak
2023. Empathic Reflection. In Psychotherapy Skills and Methods That Work, ► pp. 99 ff. 
Muntigl, Peter & Adam O. Horvath
2023. Strategic use of observer-perspective questions in couples therapy. Frontiers in Psychology 14
Ekberg, Katie, Stuart Ekberg, Lara Weinglass, Anthony Herbert, Johanna Rendle‐Short, Myra Bluebond‐Langner, Patsy Yates, Natalie Bradford & Susan Danby
2022. Attending to child agency in paediatric palliative care consultations: Adults’ use of tag questions directed to the child. Sociology of Health & Illness 44:3 ► pp. 566 ff.
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2022. Forging relationships in psychotherapeutic interaction. In Relationships in Organized Helping [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 331], ► pp. 27 ff.
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2022. So let’s say men can’t understand that much. In Relationships in Organized Helping [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 331], ► pp. 105 ff.
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2022. Psychotherapist’s empathic responses to client’s troubles telling/feelings talk in psychotherapy: A conversation analysis
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