ABSTRACT
Heidi Levitt, a well-known psychotherapy researcher, has studied pauses longer than 3 seconds in psychotherapeutic dialogues. What she shows is that pauses can be classified on a scale from obstructive to thoughtful; the classification, then, is based on what happens before and after the pause, by context. A high number of obstructive pauses can be used to predict a negative outcome of therapy, a high number of contemplative pauses serves as a predictor of a positive outcome. Levitt's study is done with methodological rigor, which makes her results very convincing. Her results fit well into an overarching concept of silence as a threat or deepening intersubjectivity. We come to understand better what contextual features this distinction is based on.
