Linguistic psychotherapy research: new directions and promising findings

Language configures experience and is our primary instrument of meaning making. Its central role in the construction of our subjective and interpersonal worlds provides the rationale for investigating its forms and functions in psychotherapy. Three clinically relevant dimensions of language (i.e., connectivity, modality, and complexity) are outlined and several examples of linguistic variables on each dimension are defined. Linguistic studies of psychotherapy are then presented in terms of focal points of assessment: pretherapy, intherapy, and posttherapy. At each focal point, innovative applications of linguistic variables are presented, often in contexts that permit direct contrast with more traditional methodologies. Promising preliminary results suggest that linguistic research can help to better differentiate and describe patient psychopathology at pretherapy, therapist and patient processes in therapy, and patient gains at posttherapy.