Conversation Analysis of Open Dialogue Network Meetings

Conversation analysis is a unique approach to studying spoken interaction due to its focus on describing conversational practices, and how these practices achieve social actions. Conversation analysis differs from other analyses because of an emphasis on the observable micro details of conversation and eschews descriptions based on themes, internal states, or broader social discourses. Conversation analysis studies the conversation rather than the people in the conversation. It has been used to study a number of settings including family therapy. Dialogical approaches to psychotherapy encourage a dialogical form of interaction. These approaches emphasise the creation of polyphony, the therapist's tolerance of uncertainty and the use of reflecting conversations, but sometimes it is not clear on how these ideas are actually manifested within the conversation itself. I have been attempting to better understand dialogical conversations through the use of conversation analysis. Through this work we may enhance our understanding of dialogical therapy on a micro-level and identify more helpful conversational practices. The analysis has yielded some preliminary findings about some of the conversational techniques utilised by therapists. I hope to share some of these findings and, in a dialogical spirit, to encourage discussion and feedback from workshop participants about their thoughts, ideas, and responses to this research.