Evaluative language in physiotherapy practice: How does it contribute to the therapeutic relationship?

Iréne Josephson, Robyn Woodward-Kron, Clare Delany and Amy Hiller

Social Science & Medicine, 2015, vol. 143, issue C, 128-136

Abstract: In physiotherapy, the therapeutic relationship - in which a therapist and patient work together to achieve treatment goals – is increasingly seen as the foundation of patient care. How the therapeutic relationship is established and enacted, however, is not well understood. One way to better understand the nature of the relationship is to examine how therapists and patients evaluate and inform each other about the patient's physical capacity, sensation, and emotions. As the patient and therapist's talk is the primary means to realise and exchange such evaluations, our focus is on evaluative language used by the therapist and patient in their interactions. The aim of this paper is to examine the language and function of evaluation in physiotherapy consultations.

Keywords: Australia; Sweden; Physiotherapy; Therapeutic relationship; Discourse analysis; Communication; Clinician–patient interaction; Patient-centred care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.038

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