What's in a conversation? Discourse correlates of concepts in the Conversational Model of Psychotherapy [ 2006 - 2008 ]

Research Grant

Researchers: A/Pr David Butt (Principal investigator) ,  Dr Alison Moore ,  E/Pr Russell Meares

Brief description How and why does therapeutic talk assist people with mental health disorders to change and restore their sense of self? How do psychiatrists read the potential for such change in the discourse of their patients? This collaborative project, between psychiatry and linguistics, investigates the role of language in providing both strategies for change and evidence of change in the Conversational Model of psychotherapy. The project will examine the linguistic patterns that occur in the forms of talk used by therapists employing the Conversational Model of Psychotherapy, in order to produce a better understanding of certain mental illnesses, and how they can be treated. Specifically, it will: 1. describe, linguistically, four key discourse categories of the Conversational Model that are taken as indicators of progress in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder 2. explain the therapeutic work of such discourse - what is it about these particular language resources that facilitates the observed changes in patients' discourse and mind? 3. assess the stability of key discourse categories of the Conversational Model, and test the ability of a linguistic profile to reliably distinguish between key therapeutic categories as used by different clinicians. The positive effects of Conversational Therapy on incidence of self harm, violence, hospital stays, drug use and self-reported symptoms in this group have been well documented and are especially impressive given that many of the patients in these studies had been turned away from other forms of treatment as unresponsive. By understanding better how this therapy works in a patient group that is typically resistant to treatment but responsive to this particular treatment, we hope to improve health outcomes for people diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. In the longer term we expect this research to help improve techniques for enhancing the mental health of Australians more generally.

Funding Amount $AUD 240,952.93

Funding Scheme NHMRC Project Grants

Notes Standard Project Grant