Meldrum, Jason (2020) Conversation Analysis: The Invisible Words That Matter When Closing Couples Therapy. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Closing conversations in mundane and institutional settings can be seen as an important feat where interlocutors work together to both achieve silence and maintain their relationships. In psychotherapy, the importance of closing conversations is neglected in current literature, where more emphasis is placed on openings and the establishment of the therapeutic relationship and less on how therapy is closed. This case study examines how closings are managed by a therapist and a client couple over a program of six Internal Family Systems therapy sessions. It uses conversation analysis, a purely inductive methodology, to identify small, invisible words that are sequenced by the therapist to skilfully bring each session to a close. These small words are evident in the ethno-methods adopted by the study’s participants and the actions they perform are evident in the examination of the moment-by-moment talk that unfolds throughout the closing stages of each session. The study finds that the therapist’s use of small words affords a form of delicacy and that they effect normative actions necessary to close each session. The small words are observed as being truncated across the program without any loss to the therapist-client relationship or to the goals of the therapy. The study serves to shine a light on the importance of closings in psychotherapy and makes recommendation for the inclusion of closings in future psychotherapy process research and therapy training doctrine.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Steven Christensen |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Sep 2025 06:41 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Sep 2025 06:41 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | conversation analysis; couples therapy; closings; truncation; delicacy; |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52575 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
