Training versus talking: How therapists actually ask questions.

Psychotherapy training often emphasises structured communication techniques, including the widely taught principle of asking one question at a time (see Egan, 2018; Ivey, et al., 2022; Hill, 2014; Nelson-Jones, 2015). These guidelines aim to minimise confusion and avoid directing client responses. However, findings from this Conversation Analysis (CA) study suggest that such pedagogical norms may not reflect actual therapeutic practice. By examining the opening moments of seven recorded counselling sessions involving two therapists with different theoretical orientations, this study explores how therapists initiate early dialogue with clients. Contrary to instructional advice, therapists frequently ask multiple question in succession, often in a single, uninterrupted turn at talk. These multi-unit question turns routinely also include a welcome and explanation linked by conjunction such as ‘and’. Rather than producing confusion or hesitation,  clients respond to these multiunit inquiries with broad, reflective and subjective accounts. This challenges the notion that single question formats are inherently superior for facilitating therapeutic dialogue. Instead, the study demonstrates how interactional practices that depart from textbook norms can successfully promote client engagement. By focusing on actual talk-in-interaction CA provides detailed insights into how therapeutic relationships develop moment by moment. These insights have important implications for psychotherapy education, rather than relying solely on decontextualised rules, training should incorporate close analyses of real therapeutic conversations. In doing so, educators can better equip students to recognise an respond to the dynamic, situated nature of therapeutic work as it is collaboratively accomplished in practice.