Spradley's ethnographic questioning: An invitation for healing

Abstract

I show how a set of questioning techniques developed for ethnographic research (Spradley, 1979) may be applied to the counseling interview. The analysis of the appropriateness of ethnograhic questioning in therapeutic conversations is grounded in the understanding that research concepts can be integrated with counseling skills (Gale & Newfield, 1992; Sells et al., 1994). The conditions for initiating therapeutic change are established when clients become aware of some of the cultural rules and maps by which they live. The counselor can elicit this awareness through an examination of the client's vocabulary. In this article, I outline the concepts of cluture and ethnogrphic semantics, describe the major categories of ethnogrphic questions, and illustrate how ethnogrphic question can be applied to the healing interview.