Yao2017

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Yao2017
BibType ARTICLE
Key Yao2017
Author(s) Xue-li Yao, Wen Ma
Title Question resistance and its management in Chinese psychotherapy
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Medical, Psychotherapy, Chinese, Resistance, Questions, Medical EMCA
Publisher
Year 2017
Language
City
Month
Journal Discourse Studies
Volume 19
Number 2
Pages 216-233
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1461445617695700
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

From the tape-recording of naturally occurring Chinese psychotherapy sessions, this article explores how repeated occurrences of resistance are managed in the course of interactional sequences and the participants’ actions within these sequences. By employing the methods of conversation analysis, we discuss the main discursive strategies employed by the clients to express their resistance and investigate how the therapist manages this. We find that clients show their resistance to the therapist’s questions in four ways: keeping silence, providing minimal response, making non-answer responses, and being over-talkative. Persistent asking is the main technique we identify in the data for the therapist to manage the resistance; in the meantime, asking questions in a stepwise way, making requests after facing resistance to questions, active retreating and reformulating of the client’s words are employed as subsidiary techniques. The successful management of resistance leads to a smooth sequential development of the psychotherapy, while inappropriate strategies might result in a halt or even breakdown of the therapeutic work. In psychotherapy, resistance is a result of the shared interaction between client and therapist. It is such a complex issue that, in order to understand and manage it, we also take into consideration the broader social and cultural context in which it occurs.

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