Therapeutic Ways with Words provides a unique glimpse into language use in psychotherapy, an important speech event which has previously been shrouded in mystery. This important book shows how both clients and therapists accomplish their aims through language, which, paradoxically, is both the method of diagnosis and the medium of treatment in this cultural practice. With a discourse analysis of tape recordings and transcripts of actual psychotherapy sessions enhanced by a variety of ethnographic observations, Kathleen Warden Ferrara explores the skillful and creative uses of...

Therapeutic Ways with Words provides a unique glimpse into language use in psychotherapy, an important speech event which has previously been shrouded in mystery. This important book shows how both clients and therapists accomplish their aims through language, which, paradoxically, is both the method of diagnosis and the medium of treatment in this cultural practice. With a discourse analysis of tape recordings and transcripts of actual psychotherapy sessions enhanced by a variety of ethnographic observations, Kathleen Warden Ferrara explores the skillful and creative uses of...