ABSTRACT
This chapter describes different ways in which therapists can encourage clients to talk. It suggests how some of the devices could be applied to everyday conversation to help all those people who have difficulty in meeting new people and starting conversations. The therapists offer clients the hope that they too can recover from setbacks and improve the quality of their lives. In psychotherapy training students are encouraged to ask open questions in the belief that they place fewer constraints on answers. The turn-taking structure of the talk-in-interaction in psychotherapy depends on the problem under investigation. The speech-exchange system is created moment by moment through the interaction of the participants. Helping clients to bring unrecognised beliefs to the surface is an important part of psychotherapy. Certain therapists' skills that help them to get clients to talk can be applied to how we can start a conversation with people we have not met before.
