Joining revisited in family therapy: discourse analysis of cross-cultural encounters between a therapist and an immigrant family

Abstract

With increasing diversity in therapeutic dyads, there has been renewed attention to the process of ‘joining’ in cross-cultural encounters. Inspired by discourse analysis, we conducted a close reading of therapy transcripts between a Pakistani immigrant mother-daughter dyad and a Canadian white female therapist in an outpatient clinic. Our findings illustrate detailed discursive interactions for joining techniques – selective joining, confirmation, and tracking – (1) where the therapist facilitates joining moments with the family and (2) where the same techniques are used to preclude further exploration of the family's cultural views. Consequently, the joining process is at times limited by the therapist's enactment of her own assumptions about the family's culture. Due to the doxic nature of cultural assumptions, a discursive analysis may help to prevent therapists from silencing their clients’ cultural voices and to be more reflexive of their assumptions, thus promoting joining. Practitioner points: Joining in family therapy is a dynamic process The detailed analysis of joining moments can serve as an example for training therapists to examine their moment-to-moment responses to culturally diverse clients Therapeutic constructs/techniques (e.g. joining) cannot be decontextualized or conceptualized as apolitical and acultural Critical reflexivity may prevent therapists from unknowingly oppressing culturally diverse clients’ experiences and cultural identities.