Voices and silences in therapy: Examining the unsaid in family therapy

1
Voices and silences in therapy Examining the
unsaid in family therapy

• Evrinomy Avdi
• Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki

2
Voices and silences in therapy

• Silence 'troubles the notion of voice as an
  indicator of authenticity, immediacy, or
  narrative authority in qualitative inquiry
  (McLure et al., 2010).

3
Silence in therapy Theoretical considerations

• The majority of theoretical and empirical work on
  silence in therapy examines the client's silence.
• Theoretically, understanding influenced by the
  traditional psychodynamic view of silence as
  resistance or defense.
• Information-processing and cognitive theorists
  silence as result of processing required for and
  preceding cognitive change/ shifts in schemas.

4
Silence in therapy Theoretical considerations

• Qualitative literature on silence in therapy
• Most studies define silence in relation to pauses
  (generally 1min) in client's talk
• Some studies approach silence as that which is
  not articulated, the absent word, the unsaid.

5
Studying silence Researching pauses

• Pauses in narration linked to transitions in the
  plot (e.g. Gee, 1989).
• Pausing in therapy associated with high levels of
  processing, e.g. schema shifts (e.g. Toukmainian,
  1992).
• But pauses/ silence treated as a homogeneous
  phenomenon.

6
Studying silence Researching pauses

• Levitt (2001a, 2001b, 2002) Grounded theory of
  responses, based on the Interpersonal Process
  Recall paradigm.
• Categorization system for client pauses
• Need to differentiate between type of pause/
  silence.
• Type of pause linked to outcome.

7
Studying silence Researching pauses

• Productive
• emotional (in touch with intense feeling)
• expressive(looking for the right words)
• reflective
• Obstructive
• disengaged (withdrawing)
• interactional (e.g. safeguarding alliance)
• Neutral
• mnemonic (attempts at recall)
• associational (shift in topic)

8
Studying silence Researching the unsaid

• Studying the unsaid implicitly.
• Drawing on narrative theory, linking
  psychological difficulties with silencing of
  vital aspects of experience and subjectivity
  (e.g. effects of dominant discourses, silence as
  linked to power and resistance)

9
Studying silence Researching the unsaid

• Studying the unsaid explicitly
• Rogers et al (1999) languages of the unsayable
  four languages on a continuum of knowledge and
  consciousness
• Language of negation. Note points where
  something is recognized through its negation,
  repeatedly denied or negatively constructed

10
Studying silence Researching the unsaid

• Language of revision. Note self-correcting
  details of events, explicitly contradicting or
  denying something previously uttered
• Language of smokescreen/ evasion. Note
  hesitations, stumbling, avoiding questions,
  consistently short answers to specific questions,
  diversions what is being avoided?

11
Studying silence Researching the unsaid

• Language of silence. Note missing information,
  unresolved puzzles, contradictions that leave
  reader confused, gaps in knowledge or
  understanding.

12
Studying silence Conclusions and implications

• Silence is undoubtedly problematic and troubling
  for qualitative research.
• Need to be aware of the risk of overlooking the
  meanings of what is absent in language.
• Challenges in studying silence
• Issues of authorship, the grounding of
  interpretations and power.

13
Conclusions and implications

• Studying what is absent expands the notion of
  text and reframes issues of validity and the
  grounding of interpretations.
• A helpful practice is to use an interpretative
  community

14
Conclusions and implications

• On a theoretical level, studying the unsaid often
  relies on some notion of an unconscious mind.
• This is not necessarily incommensurate with
  social constructionist views but requires further
  theoretical elaboration.

15

• Thank you
• avdie_at_psy.auth.gr