Identifying Transformative Sequences in the Psychotherapeutic Interaction With Chinese Adolescents With Depression: A Conversation Analysis Approach

Previous studies seldom touch on aspects of psychotherapeutic encounters between therapists and clients with particular disorders (such as depression). Little attention has been paid to the sequence organization of psychotherapeutic interaction between therapists and clients with depression in Chinese medical settings. By adopting conversation analysis, we investigated the specifics of psychotherapeutic encounters, specifically, the transformative sequences of psychotherapeutic interaction between therapists and Chinese adolescents with depression. We identified the fourth aspect of clients’ experience transformed in the Chinese psychotherapeutic interaction with adolescents with depression: cognition, and described how the sequential organization of therapists’ actions facilitates the momentary transformation of clients’ experience (i.e., the transformation of cognition, referent, emotion, and relation) in the psychotherapeutic processes. This study not only adds to the conversation analytic study on the transformative sequences in psychotherapeutic interaction but also sheds some light on the study of how therapists transform clients’ experience in Chinese psychotherapeutic interaction.