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Our participation in the XIX Argentine Congress of Therapeutic Accompaniment (AT) organized by the Argentine TA Association (AATRA) at the Faculty of Psychology of the National University of Mar del Plata (UNMDP) motivated a shared writing task in which we propose to think creatively about the about the function of the therapeutic companion (at) as an agent of health and change, through reference and the theoreticalclinical assembly regarding the problems of a girl who, in her transition through puberty, called us to the review of an approach that recreated the importance of interdisciplinary work. The creativity (Winnicott, 1996) of a multi-referential framework (Bálsamo, 2022) allowed us to think about a living space and professional determinations when therapeutically accompanying the emotional development of the girl mentioned as a patient and accompanied In our record of the AT and its meaning, protecting the conditions of right to the psychic process, to the instance of changing and growing, strongly refers us to a place of production of a subjectivity with ample space for the subjectifying (Frison, 2023). It is a position that ethically leads us towards a desire that privileges the singular in listening. A transitionality (Winnicott, 1996) that implies a maintenance in continuity of offering expression to the being, promoting the event and emancipation (Bálsamo, 2022). The presence, his observation and listening available in the exercise of his practice, his place in the interdisciplinary team, make the importance of the function of the at. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work participation is known to benefit people's overall health and wellbeing, but accessing vocational support during periods of sickness absence to facilitate return-to-work can be challenging for many people. In this study, we explored how vocational advice was delivered by trained vocational support workers (VSWs) to people who had been signed-off from work by their General Practitioner (GP), as part of a feasibility study testing a vocational advice intervention. We investigated the discursive and interactional strategies employed by VSWs and people absent from work, to pursue their joint and respective goals. Theme-oriented discourse analysis was carried out on eight VSW consultations. These consultations were shown to be complex interactions, during which VSWs utilised a range of strategies to provide therapeutic support in discussions about work. These included; signalling empathy with the person's perspective; positively evaluating their personal qualities and prior actions; reflecting individuals' views back to them to show they had been heard and understood; fostering a collaborative approach to action-planning; and attempting to reassure individuals about their return-to-work concerns. Some individuals were reluctant to engage in return-to-work planning, resulting in back-and-forth interactional negotiations between theirs and the VSW's individual goals and agendas. This led to VSWs putting in considerable interactional 'work' to subtly shift the discussion towards return-to-work planning. The discursive strategies we have identified have implications for training health professionals to facilitate work-orientated conversations with their patients, and will also inform training provided to VSWs ahead of a randomised controlled trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]