Formulations in ‘Trouble’ Chat Sessions
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Abstract
In this article, we examine the organizational and interactional tasks of formulations in chat counseling, as these have been found to play an important interactional role in face-to-face counseling. The data consist of 53 individual chat sessions of approximately 25 minutes each between a coach and a client with moderate symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. Using conversation analysis (CA) as a method, the study finds three uses of formulation: 1) organizing formulations, 2) clarifying formulations, and 3) ‘therapeutic’ formulations. The first and third types are used in ways comparable to face-to-face therapy. The second type is a strategy to deal with trouble in the interaction and aims at re-establishing intersubjectivity. The analysis reveals the important role of question marks and reduced conditional relevance of a response to a formulation in chat. This study contributes to the understanding of institutional interaction online and the interconnection between medium structure and social interaction.
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