title: Conversation analysis of the two-chair self-soothing task in emotion-focused therapy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite an increasing recognition of the relevance and significance of self-compassion processes, little research has explored interventions that seek to enhance these in therapy. In this study, we examined the compassionate self-soothing task of emotion-focused therapy involving two-chair work, with seven clients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Conversation analysis was used to examine client-therapst interaction.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis yielded a detailed description of interactional practices and processes involved in the accomplishment of self-soothing, drawing on Goffman's concept of the participation frame. We show how therapists and clients collaborate to move from the ordinary frame of therapeutic conversation to a self-soothing frame and back again by using various interactional practices: Therapists' instructions to clients, specific ways of sequencing actions in interaction, explanations and justification of the importance of the self-soothing task, pronouns as a way to distinguish among addressees (e.g., clients versus soothing agents), corrections of clients' talk, and response tokens (hm mm, yeah, good). These practices are used to help clients accomplish self-soothing in the form of self-praise, disclosing caring, and offering of helpful advice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study offers therapists a specific account of how to respond to clients at specific junctures in self-soothing dialogues and how to structure and accomplish the self-soothing task.
authors.affiliation: a Family Relations & Applied Nutrition , MacDonald Institute, University of Guelph , Guelph , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sutherland
authors.forename: Anssi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peräkylä
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: conversation analysis; emotion-focused therapy; self-compassion; self-kindness; self-soothing; two-chair intervention