Paying attention to therapy discourse: identifying therapy processes and practice in talk about talk

Therapy discourse between the client and clinician has specific objectives to ameliorate problems associated with communication and swallowing disorders and is highly specialized. Analysis of this interaction that is the essence of therapy demonstrates the roles played by participants, revealing layers of meaning and assisting clinicians to redefine and refine their ideas about therapy. In this article, the authors analyze a series of extracts of therapy interaction to explore how therapy rapport is coconstructed by participants through talking and how roles are negotiated during the process of problem solving in therapy.