International Conference on Conversation Analysis and Psychotherapy

26-28 February 2026
Cracow, Poland

Conference theme

How Psychotherapy Works: Longitudinal Perspectives

The conference will be exploring the mechanisms and processes that underpin effective psychotherapy over time. This theme will delve into how therapeutic interventions evolve, sustain, and influence client outcomes across various timeframes and contexts. By examining longitudinal studies, clinical experiences, and emerging research, the conference aims to provide deeper insights into the enduring impacts of psychotherapy, counseling, coaching and other professions of “talking cure”, fostering a comprehensive understanding of their effectiveness and the factors that contribute to long-term success.

 

Information regarding bank accounts, registration, and payments will be posted on the conference website by July 1 at the latest.

Plenary Speakers

Arnulf Deppermann

Arnulf Deppermann is head of the Pragmatics department at The Institute for the German Language (IDS Mannheim, Germany) and professor for German linguistics at the University of Mannheim. He has studied a great variety of topics and phenomena in the fields of Conversation Analysis, Interactional Linguistics and multimodal interaction analysis. Recently he has worked on theater rehearsals, psychotherapy, and driving lessons. His main interest is in the development of linguistic practices, routines, and social relationships over interactional histories, a topic that is intrinsically linked to issues of therapeutic change.

Arnulf Deppermann is head of the Pragmatics department at The Institute for the German Language (IDS Mannheim, Germany) and professor for German linguistics at the University of Mannheim. He has studied a great variety of topics and phenomena in the fields of Conversation Analysis, Interactional Linguistics and multimodal interaction analysis. 

Recently he has worked on theater rehearsals, psychotherapy, and driving lessons. His main interest is in the development of linguistic practices, routines, and social relationships over interactional histories, a topic that is intrinsically linked to issues of therapeutic change.

© Universität Heidelberg / Tobias Schwerdt

Anja Stukenbrock

Anja Stukenbrock is Professor of German Linguistics at the University of Heidelberg. She was a Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) where she conducted projects on psychotherapy, language and space, deixis, gesture and gaze in social interaction. Her research interests include multimodal conversation analysis, psychotherapeutic interaction, grammar and embodiment. In recent years, she has begun to work on longitudinal phenomena such as the routinization of grammatical and embodied practices, and the interactional construction of common ground. She is co-editor of Narrative Bewältigung von Trauma und Verlust/Narrative Coping with Trauma and Loss (with C.E. Scheidt, G. Lucius-Hoene, E. Waller; Schattauer 2015), Mobile Eye Tracking. New Avenues for the Study of Gaze in Social Interaction (with E. Zima; Benjamins 2025). She has published articles in journals such as Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Communication, Language Communication; Journal of Pragmatics, Open Linguistics, Psyche.

Carl Scheidt

Prof. em. Dr. Carl Eduard Scheidt, M.A., MD, Psychiatry and Psychosomatic medicine, Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (GPA, IPA), Dep. for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy Albert-Ludwigs- University Freiburg, Fellow at the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies (FRIAS) 2011 and 2017.
Research interests: Attachment theory, Psychotherapy process research and research of psychotherapeutic interaction. Since 2024 in private practice.

Steven Clayman

Steven E. Clayman is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research addresses human interaction as a topic in its own right, and as a window into social institutions including law and policing, media and politics, and more recently clinical settings. His articles have appeared in sociology, communication, and linguistics journals, and he is the co-author (with John Heritage) of Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities, and Institutions (Wiley-Blackwell) and The News Interview: Journalists and Public Figures On the Air (Cambridge).

Plenary discussants

Joanna Pawelczyk

Joanna Pawelczyk is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics in the Department of Sociolinguistics and Discourse Studies at the Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. She was a Fulbright fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2018/2019, working on a research project: “Gender ideologies and women’s position in the U.S. military”. She is the author of “Talk as Therapy: Psychotherapy in a Linguistic Perspective” (2011, Mouton de Gruyter) and a co-author of “Gender and Sexuality in English Language Education: Focus on Poland” (2015, British Council). Her main area of research are language and gender, gender in the professional organizations and language and interaction in psychotherapy. In her work she is interested in the practical application of discourse analytic research findings.

Sanna Vehviläinen

Sanna Vehviläinen, PhD, adjunct professor, work counsellor, entrepreneur

Vehviläinen received her PhD at the University of Helsinki. She is currently professor of career guidance at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research interests include research on interaction in guidance and counselling settings, and modelling guidance activity and competence. She has also published in psychotherapeutic and supervision interaction and university pedagogy

John Rae

John P. Rae is Reader in Psychology in the School of Psychology, University of Roehampton, London, UK.  His research focuses on talk and body movement in social interaction in both informal and service-related to settings, including psychotherapy. He is interested in human diversity, particularly interactions involving participants with autism.  He edited Atypical interaction: the impact payments with everyday life (with Ray Wilkinson and Gitte Rasmussen, Palgrade, 2020) and Bridging the gap between conversation analysis and poetics (with Raymond F Person, Jr.  and Robin Wooffitt, Routledge, 2022).

Scientific Committee

Michael Buchholz

International Psychoanalytic University Berlin

Germany

Arnulf Deppermann

Institute for the German Language, Mannheim

Germany

Eva-Maria Graf

University of Klagenfurt

Austria

Barbara Józefik

Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków

Poland

Peter Muntigl

Ghent University

Belgium

Joanna Pawelczyk

Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań

Poland

Anssi Peräkylä

University of Helsinki

Finland

Stefan Pfänder

University of Freiburg

Germany

John Rae

Roehampton University, London

United Kingdom

Ines Samteband

Mount Royal University, Calgary

Canada

Claudio Scarvaglieri

University of Lausanne

Switzerland

Anja Stukenbrock

University of Heidelberg

Germany

Liisa H. Voutilainen

University of Eastern Finland

Finland

Organizing Committee​

Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland

Bernadetta Janusz (chair)

Antonina Bryniarska

Paulina Cofór-Pinkowska

Karolina Dejko-Wańczyk

Barbara Józefik

Dagmara Mętel

Anssi Peräkylä

Dawid Storman

Bartłomiej Taurogiński

Aleksandra Tomasiewicz

Barbara Wojszel

Sylwia Wyczółkowska

Conference Location

Centrum Dydaktyczno Kongresowe 

świętego Łazarza 16

31-530 Kraków

Friday Banquet

Join us for a special banquet
on Friday evening!
 

 

Please note that participation in the banquet requires an additional fee.

For more details and to register, please visit the “Banquet Registration” section.