Significant Moments in a Couple Therapy Session: Towards the Integration of Different Modalities of Analysis

Abstract

This chapter presents a couple therapy session from four different research perspectives: The verbal dialogue was analysed with the Dialogical Investigations of Happenings of Change method, the embodied reactions of each participant were analysed by examining the electrodermal activity of each participant, and nonverbal synchrony was observed between the participants. Stimulated Recall Interviews, conducted individually after the session, were used to gain insights on the participants’ thoughts and feelings concerning particular moments in the session. We wished to determine what could be learned from the embodied reactions of the participants in couple therapy, including whether the data obtained via the different research methods were telling the same or different story about the same moment within the couple therapy session.