Guided Letter Writing: A Long Brief Therapy Method Whereby Clients Carry Out Their Own Treatment

Abstract

This paper describes an innovation in psychotherapy that was initiated by the first author in 1979. It draws upon clients' resources in being able to express themselves in writing rather than relying on the spoken word alone. Terpager found that clients were able to carry out much of the therapeutic work on their own through the process of writing letters. Although he has elaborated and refined his method since it was first developed, it still remains largely unknown. The second author became aware of this work in 1988 and began using it occasionally as well. Tomm eventually agreed to help prepare this brief description of Terpager's method so that it could become more widely available. The paper is not intended to review the literature on writing in therapy, but to outline a single systematic approach.