Chapter published in:
Relationships in Organized Helping: Analyzing interaction in psychotherapy, medical encounters, coaching and in social media
Edited by Claudio Scarvaglieri, Eva-Maria Graf and Thomas Spranz-Fogasy
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 331] 2022
► pp. 105–126

So let’s say men can’t understand that much

Gender and relational practices in psychotherapy with women suffering from eating disorders

| Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań
| University of Padua

In this paper we look at three extracts of two psychotherapy sessions between a female therapist and a woman patient suffering from bulimia and depression. We use conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis to examine how gender, indexing the quality of the emotional bond between participants, is interactionally managed in view of the session’s goals.

The findings show the patient relying on gender as category-sharing to account for her actions and seek understanding. The therapist, however, tends to resist the category-sharing and engages the patient in extensive work around gender categories. Women psychotherapists should be particularly attuned to women patients’ invoking of category-sharing and critically consider its relevance and application in the situated context of therapy work.

Keywords: gender, psychotherapy, eating disorders, alignment, affiliation, conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Psychotherapy and relational practices
  • 3.Data and methods
  • 4.Data analysis
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Transcription conventions (see Jefferson 2004)
  • References
Published online: 07 September 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.331.05paw
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