In the preceding chapter we examined four types of question that the counsellors use in introducing the topic of the future during counselling sessions. It was concluded that the four questioning techniques together set up a potential strategy whereby the participants can move from vague hints into explicit questions and answers about the clients' fears and beliefs. The fourth method, involving the use of what the counsellors call ‘hypothetical futureoriented questions’, is the final stage of that strategy.

In this chapter we will continue the examination of ‘hypothetical future-oriented questions’. In terms of the progression of the talk about the future, as it were, we start from the point that we reached in the preceding chapter: now we take for granted that the interlocutors have achieved the interactional environment where hypothetical, future-oriented questions can be asked. We will examine what is done through asking and answering these questions.

In the Family Systems Theory literature, the therapeutic importance of hypothetical questions is pointed out (e.g. Penn 1985; Miller and Bor 1988) but the interactional dynamics related to their use is not thoroughly discussed. The goal of this chapter is, therefore, to use the analytical machinery of Conversation Analysis to examine how these questions work. What follows is an examination of the properties of hypothetical questions and of the methods of their use in generating talk about the clients' future.

The structure of hypothetical questions

We will begin with a brief re-examination of the examples of hypothetical questions presented in chapter 6.