Magical Conversations

Interviewing clients is a part of the Educational Psychologist’severyday activity and takes many forms. The language used bythe interviewee conveys how their world is represented at thelinguistic level and also allows access to inadequacies in thatrepresentation. This permits a therapeutic approach to everyconversation resulting in the possibility that all conversationscan lead to change and seem to have a magical effect. Thecurrent research explores this area from a neuro-linguisticprogramming (NLP) framework, taking a qualitative approachto the analysis of conversations involving the author and otheradults discussing children’s difficulties. The usefulness andlimitations of this approach is then reflected upon anddiscussed.