Recursive and Connecting Dialogues: Spoken and Written Conversations

Abstract

This paper is focused on therapeutic work that includes spoken conversations and written conversations. The author views both the spoken and written conversations as part of the reflecting process. The written conversations develop out of the therapeutic dialogue and take the form of letter writing to self or another. The author outlines a four-stage process of letter writing. The therapist’s role is that of an active dialogic partner with the client in identifying the usefulness of a possible letter as well as a direction to self or another. The therapist becomes a witness and reflector to the client’s reading of a letter. The paper both illustrates and addresses the ways in which these practices transform stuck conversations or narratives. My use of writing is part of the therapeutic dialogue and is focused on letter writing. In the course of a therapeutic conversation, a client and I identify what I call a “stuck conversation” either with self at an earlier time or with another person. I often suggest that a client write a letter to revisit or open the stuck conversation. Most typically, clients choose to do the writing apart from our meeting and bring the letter to a following session. At other times, a client might choose to write a letter within a session. The very nature of a letter is both relational and conversational, and embedded in a dimension of time. In my work as a psychologist and family therapist, letter writing has become a vital and integral part of therapeutic conversations. I am aware of the tradition of both letter writing and expressive writing in the context of psychotherapy. Michael White and David Epston (1990) discussed writing letters as the therapist to clients and families at different points in the therapy process to make visible the therapists’ understanding and to foster rich story development. They further comment, “Narratives, then allow for lived experience to be construed in lived time and rendered eventful by being plotted into