Open Access

Thomas Spranz-Fogasy, Eva-Maria Graf, Johannes C. Ehrenthal, Christoph Nikendei

• The goal of the current contribution is to discuss the specific change potential of requesting examples in the helping formats ‘psychotherapy’ and coaching’. Requesting examples are defined as retrospective requests from the therapist/coach to the patient/client to elaborate the latter’s directly preceding utterance via an exemplary concretization. To appropriately reflect upon past events and upon personal experiences is often considered a key for change given that such reflections allows patients/clients to develop alternative and new perspectives on their lives, their relationships, their selves etc. To work with examples or to present concrete experiences thus functions as a central change practice both in psychotherapy and in coaching. While this discursive practice entails an inherent change potential, we still have to empirically unfold the sequential, thematic and action theoretical design of requesting examples as well as their interaction-type specific change function(s). This has already been done in the context of therapy. We now widen the focus and contrast these findings with analyses of requesting examples in executive coaching. Thereby this contribution does not only provide in-depth insight into the change potential of requesting examples, but also adds to further differentiate therapy and coaching as regards their discursive and interactive layout.