title: Clients as conversational agents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Conversational agency is our invented term that orients us to ways in which clients participate in therapeutic dialogues. In this study we examined how clients' conversational correctives and initiatives influenced collaborative therapeutic consultations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-five single-session lifestyle consultations were videotaped in which adult clients volunteered to discuss concerns of non-clinical severity with a counselor. We discursively microanalyzed excerpts where clients initiated topic shifts or corrected counselor misunderstandings and how counselors responded to them.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clients were actively involved in co-managing conversational developments during the consultations. They influenced the content and course of the conversations with the counselors by correcting, interrupting, or speaking from positions contrary or unrelated to those of the counselors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clients observably influenced the conversational agenda through their correctives and initiatives if counselors were responsive during face-to-face consultations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinicians should demonstrate increased sensitivity and relational responsivity by intentionally engaging with clients' agentive contributions to consultative dialogues.
authors.affiliation: Educational Studies in Counselling Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. hfmassfe@ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: Helen F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Massfeller
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Strong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D003142:Communication; D003376:Counseling; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D010358:Patient Participation; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D014743:Videotape Recording