Abstract
How can we visualize the evolving psychotherapeutic alliance in dialogue? The psychotherapeutic dialogue is an important source of data for psychotherapy outcome and process research. Micro-analyses of dialogical turns within the therapeutic session support the understanding of the therapeutic method. This paper introduces the Helbig Method of Dialogue Analysis. This method is founded upon 4 pillars: 1) that dialogue is implicit action between persons that is supported by explicit verbally uttered content, 2) that the individual’s mode of inter-action within the dialogical dyad reflects the person’s relationship theme or pattern which plays out in the here-and-now, 3) that dialogue is an intersubjective process that leads to the development of new intersubjective configurations, and 4) that the observer-researcher’s phenomenological involvement plays a part in the analytical process. In this study, a 28-minute video-recorded gestalt therapy session is selected. The transcription of the session is coded using the instrument, the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Leipzig/Ulm. Results obtained from this study are quantified graphical representations of the developing relationship between therapist and client. Simple to operate, scalable and practical, this method is designed for use by therapists and researchers who are interested in tracking, comparing and/or contrasting the developing psychotherapeutic alliance in a single or in multiple psychotherapy sessions.
Keywords: psychotherapy research, dialogue analysis, psychotherapeutic alliance, Core Conflictual Relationship Theme, gestalt therapy.
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