Psychotherapy Psychotherapists and Other Allied

¶ … Psychotherapy

Psychotherapists and other allied health professionals use writing in various ways to help expand their knowledge of patient's behavioral problems, and to help patients better express themselves cognitively and emotionally. In this context, both psychotherapists and patients engage in writing exercises to expand the therapeutic benefits of psychotherapy sessions. Bolton et al., (2004) note that writing in the field of psychotherapy is an essential tool the therapist uses to build a relationship with a client, and is used as another form of "talking" allowing the therapist cognitive and emotional exploration of thoughts (p.2). The therapist however, in modern times, also encourages the client to engage in autobiographical writing to help the patient expand on ideas or thoughts discussed in session. These ideas are explored more below.

The types of writing used y therapists include charting of and demonstration of "theoretical underpinnings" (Bolton, et al., 2004, p. 1). In this type of writing the psychotherapist usually records hand written notes taken during counseling sessions with notes taken after sessions from a recorder, combining them in the patient chart for easy reference and review during and after sessions. Psychotherapists may also encourage the patient to engage in creative writing or journalism, where the patient provides the therapist with a "self-report" of their emotions or progress in the form of written words (Bolton, et al., 2004, p. 9). These handwritten autobiographies, often provided by the patient, can come in any form, even in the form of poetry the patient uses to express their feelings or circumstances. Some patients are more comfortable writing initially than talking, thus the psychotherapist can use this technique as an effective means of establishing rapport with the patient.

Psychotherapists often engage in a narrative approach to writing, where the psychotherapist determines or highlights problem areas the client has, and writes comments about these areas that center on the client rather than the therapist's observations of the client (Bolton, et al., 2004, p. 9). This form of writing can come in the form of notes written separately from, but eventually incorporated into the patient's work, or their chart. The therapist can use this writing to understand more about their client's emotional status, and to research specific behavioral problems demonstrated by the client, by comparing notes taken to case precedent or field research.

Psychotherapists may also encourage patients to write down their experience of traumatic events by first recording their thoughts and then writing a narrative about their experiences (Bolton, et al., 2004, p. 11). In this type of therapy, the psychotherapist will usually provide the patient with guided direction and instructions about the way the patient should write or the exact subject matter the patient should concentrate on. In session, the therapist my then also record his or her own narrative and allow the patient to read this information, as a form of mutually beneficial writing where the goal is improving the trust and relationship between the client and the psychotherapist (Bolton, et al., 2004). In such cases the therapist may leave subjective reasoning out of material distributed or shared with clients, so as to keep the focus of sessions on the client and not the therapist.