A Conversation Analysis Research Of Empathy In Counseling Sessions

Empathy is an extremely important concept in the field of counseling and psychotherapy. Its prominent role is emphasized by not only school of client-center, but also nearly all the psychotherapeutic genres. Although the importance of empathy is increasing in counseling practice, the research on it is still lacking, especially on the practical details of actual sequences of empathy and how empathy is achieved in interactive talk and so on. They did not show how the conceptual theories reflect in concrete practice of counseling sessions. As a qualitative research method, conversation analysis regards ordinary, trivial talk as legitimate objects for scientific research, and carries out systematic and deep analysis of the rules and mode of interactive talk. It also provides a different perspective for the study on the process of counseling sessions.Based on 22 counseling records with 100 thousand words, this article, by applying theories and methods of conversation analysis, this article identifies, describes and analyses the organization of empathic interaction, reveals the regular features of sequence and types, and also summarizes the devices counselors used when expressing empathy. This study aims to advance our understanding of the empathy phenomenon more carefully, enrich research themes and tools about empathy in counseling and psychotherapy. It also provides references for practice, teaching, assessment and supervision of counseling.Our main findings show:(1) The form of a full empathic interaction is usually composed of three stages:â‘ clients express their experience;â‘¡counselors exhibit and communicate their empathic understanding;â‘¢clients receive and respond to counselors' expression of empathy. In many cases, the empathic interaction between counselors and clients is not limited to three turns, but appear repeatedly in a certain period of dialogue. (2) "Cognitive empathy" means the counselor laying down their own reference standards, accurately recognizing the experience, status or motivation of the client, and able to convey the understanding of ideas and thoughts to the client. "Affective empathy" refers to the counselor experiencing the client's emotions and feelings deep inside through utterances and behaviors, and reflecting the same emotion perceived to the client knowing. In the same turn of exhibiting empathic understanding, these two types of empathy sometimes occur simultaneously. (3) In the turn of empathic communication by counselors, using the first-person way of expression such as "I" or "we", could better demonstrate counselors and clients in the same position, so as to encourage and guide clients' more expression and exploration of hearts. In the process of actual sessions of counseling, another device counselors often choose is actively inviting clients to repair their own turns. (4) The failure of empathic interaction is inevitable. In addition to being directly denied by clients, silence or abrupt change of topic may be seen important signs of the problem even the failure of empathic interaction between two sides.