Recognition and Interpretation: Responding to Emotional Experience in Psychotherapy

Abstract

Based on conversation analysis (CA) of audio-recorded therapy sessions, the article explicates practices of responding to the patient's emotional experience in cognitive-constructivist psychotherapy. First, the article describes two types of therapist's actions after the patient's descriptions of an emotional experience: recognition and interpretation. In recognition, the therapist displays that she understands the patient's experience and sees it as real and valid. In interpretation, the therapist points at something that can be heard as implicit in what the patient expressed. Second, the article shows that these two actions are combined in specific ways in the therapist's turns at talk. It is suggested that recognition (emotional responsiveness) is a prerequisite of the therapist's more interpretive actions that imply access to the patient's experience. The empirical findings are discussed in relation to sociological studies on management of emotions in institutions and psychotherapeutic debates on cognitive and emotional aspects of therapeutic processes.

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