An Invitation to Between-Session Change: The Use of Therapeutic Letters in Couples and Family Counseling

Abstract

Therapeutic letters (i.e., brief therapeutic messages that are sent to clients between counseling sessions) have been used since the days of Freud and have been shown to have beneficial therapeutic impacts. This article describes the use of therapeutic letters in couples and family counseling. The use of three types of therapeutic letter (letters of alliance, intensity, and meaning) are discussed. Ethical and legal issues pertaining to privacy and recommended practices for addressing such issues are reviewed.

A Phenomenological Inquiry of Clients' Experiences of Receiving a Humanistically Oriented Therapeutic Letter From Their Counselor Between Counseling Sessions

“…The majority of research concerning therapeutic letter writing is primarily associated with the tradition of the postmodern, narrative counseling perspective (Bell, Moules, & Wright, ; Epston, , ; Kindsvatter, Nelson, & Desmond, ; Kress, Hoffman, & Thomas, ; Moules, , ; White & Epston, ). Letter writing is indicative of relational practice (Allan & Bertoia, ; Epston, ; Mearns & Cooper, ; Pyle, ; Rodgers, ), and humanism highlights the centrality of relationship as a mutative force in the client's experience of growth in the counseling experience.…”