Reclaiming self by working through loss: A discourse analysis of psychotherapy sessions

Abstract

Caring for a terminally ill family member poses a great emotional challenge for an individual who, on the one hand, realizes the approaching death of a loved one and on the other, may experience various conflicting and negative emotions related to the task of caring itself. The gradual loss of a relationship with a close relative entails “a break in the integrated self” (Neuman Y, Nadav M, Bessor Y, J Pragmat 38:1369–1384, 2006). The context of psychotherapy offers a safe place where people can give voice to their painful and confusing emotions as well as work through their ongoing experience of loss (Pawelczyk J, Poznań Studies Contrastive Linguist 48(1):1–21, 2012). Using the tools and insights of discourse analysis and conversation analysis, this paper analyzes two psychotherapy sessions with a female client caring for a terminally ill daughter to examine how the psychotherapist enables the client to engage in (self-)disclosure of conflicting and negative emotions by interactionally refocusing the interaction on the client and her affect. The interactional strategies employed by the therapist bring out the client’s less socially acceptable emotions, which nevertheless reflect her lived subjective experience. In this way, the client and her emotions, rather than her daughter, become the focal points of the therapy sessions. This analysis thus reveals the psychotherapist’s practices in the process of facilitating the client’s meaningful resolution of loss and its complex accompanying emotions.