Exploring Conversational Spaces of Reflection, Generativity, and Commitment in Family Therapy

Abstract

This dissertation explores how family therapists and client family members co-create conversational spaces of reflection, generativity, and commitment. Using a discourse-oriented ethnographic approach I show how therapists and family members recognized, negotiated, and maintained these conversational spaces while accounting for the contextual influences affecting the spaces, and how they facilitated therapeutic change. I conclude the dissertation by discussing the results in light of the extant literature and by specifying the study’s limitations and implications for therapeutic practice and future research.