Delayed response’ in psychodynamic psychotherapy

Bibliographic Data

ID7750792
AuthorsL Voutilainen (0000-0002-1021-7647, University of Helsinki, corresponding author), Aino Koivisto (0000-0002-9380-5953, University of Helsinki)
Year2022
Volume24
Issue2
Pages249-265
Publication date2022-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-4456 • E-ISSN: 1461-7080
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14614456221090299
OpenAlexW4283031476
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited23

A recurrent theme that is addressed in psychotherapies is the client’s conflicting emotions. This article discusses discursive practices of working on conflicting emotions during psychodynamic psychotherapy. We focus on a phenomenon that we refer to as a ‘delayed response’ and analyze the client’s uses of interactional means, such as a display of negative experience, to invite affiliation or empathy from the therapist. The therapist, however, does not take a turn in the first possible place after the client’s turn. Recurrently, the therapist’s silence is followed by the client’s new turn that backs down from the emotional experience under discussion. After these retractions, the therapists respond with a turn that is responsive both to the retraction and to the initial display of negative experience that occurred prior to it. We argue that the timing of the therapist’s response in these sequences is in the service of psychotherapeutic work on conflicting emotions

Aesthetics · Attunement · Empathy · Psychodynamic psychotherapy · Psychodynamics · Psychotherapist · Silence · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Medicine · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology

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