Using therapeutic conversations from a televised talk show as the source data, this research investigates how people solve emotional problems in an institutional setting within a specific social cultural context. This research has drawn several conclusions based on the analysis. First, a traditional therapy genre can be adapted to become an innovative genre to execute multiple functions. Second, advice is an obligatory component in the talk show therapy context though explicit advice is not advocated in therapy theory. Genre focused analysis of the talk show therapy helps us to...