Psychotherapy is a 'talking cure'- clients voice their troubles to therapists, who listen, prompt, question, interpret and generally try to engage in a positive and rehabilitating conversation with their clients. Using the sophisticated theoretical and methodological apparatus of Conversation Analysis - a radical approach to how language in interaction works - this book sheds light on the subtle and minutely organised sequences of speech in psychotherapeutic sessions. It examines how therapists deliver questions, cope with resistance, reinterpret experiences and how they can use conversation to achieve success. Conversation is a key component of people's everyday and professional lives and this book provides an unusually detailed insight into the complexity and power of talk in institutional settings. Featuring contributions from a collection of internationally renowned authors, Conversation Analysis and Psychotherapy will appeal to researchers and graduate students studying conversation analysis across the disciplines of psychology, sociology and linguistics.

Review of the hardback:'This volume highlights the considerable insights that emerge as a result of using conversation analysis to better understand psychotherapeutic interaction. Through an examination of the practices and procedures within the 'talking cure', the contributors help initiate a dialogue between students of interaction and psychotherapy researchers. Their findings indicate that conversation analysis can highlight key aspects of the psychotherapeutic process which have hitherto remained somewhat opaque.'

Mike Forrester - University of Kent, Canterbury

Review of the hardback:'… an outstanding edited collection. In a modest volume it brings together cutting edge conversation analytic studies of psychotherapist–client interaction. … rigorous empirical work … breadth of psychoanalytic theory and practice … interesting insights into conversation analysis from an outsider’s perspective. … The book provides fascinating insights into the ways various forms of therapy are accomplished using the structures that organize social interaction. This book is a must have for students and academics with interests in conversation analysis and/or psychotherapy. It will likely become the … most important point of reference for those interested in the moment-by-moment unfolding of psychotherapeutic interaction.'

Source: Journal of Language and Social Psychology