Margot Jager

Priorities in the communication needs of adolescents with psychosocial problems and their parents

In patient‐centred care, professionals should recognize their patients needs and adapt their communication accordingly. Studies into patients’ communication needs suggest priorities vary depending on sociodemographic characteristics, and type and severity of the complaints. However, evidence lacks on priorities in the communication needs of adolescents in psychosocial care and their parents.

Compliments and accounts: Positive evaluation of reported behavior in psychotherapy for adolescents

Based on conversation analysis (CA) of video-recorded therapy sessions, the article explicates a particular interactional project of positively evaluating client-reported behavior in psychotherapy. The analysis focuses on the therapists actions that convey a positive evaluation of client-reported behavior that represents therapeutic progress. First, the data analysis revealed three components that constitute the evaluation project: discourse marker, compliment, and account. Second, the article shows that participants orient towards the observed evaluation project, both as a unified whole and as a combination of discrete and separate interactional turns. The article suggests that this evaluation project functions as a tool for achieving the institutional goal of reinforcing therapeutically desired behaviors. The empirical findings are discussed in relation to the Stocks of Interactional Knowledge, described in handbooks on dialectical behavior therapy (the specific setting in which the data were collected).