Resistance in couples counselling: Sequences of talk that disrupt progressivity and promote disaffiliation

From the video-recordings of a single complete case of couples counselling, this article examines how repeated occurrences of client opposition and avoidance or resistance is managed over extended sequences of talk and across sessions. By drawing from the methods of conversation analysis, resistance is analyzed in terms of how a client resists the constraints set up by a counsellor's questions and, subsequently, how resistance is oriented to by the next speaker. It was found that the counsellor's orientation to the client's resistance became more disaffiliative and oppositional in the later stages of counselling. This increased disaffiliation was found to facilitate an alliance between the counsellor and client's spouse against the client. This lead to more explicit forms of disengagement from the client and, ultimately, to a breakdown in the progressivity of counselling work. Counsellor practices used to deal with resistance are critically discussed in terms of their effectiveness.

► A counsellor's and spouse's responses to client resistance are examined. ► The counsellor became more disaffiliative towards the resistance over time. ► An alliance of opposition against the client was formed. ► This mounting disaffiliation led to more disengagement from the client. ► Increased client disengagement resulted in a temporary breakdown in counselling.