Letters Home

A groundbreaking work that explains how the simple act of letter writing can help us confront our problems and, ultimately, change our lives, Letters Home brings us into the intimate center of family conflict as we follow the efforts of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and husbands and wives to transform themselves. Twenty years ago Dr. Terry Vance began assigning letter writing to her psychotherapy patients as a method of addressing past psychological and physical abuses,...
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A groundbreaking work that explains how the simple act of letter writing can help us confront our problems and, ultimately, change our lives, Letters Home brings us into the intimate center of family conflict as we follow the efforts of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and husbands and wives to transform themselves. Twenty years ago Dr. Terry Vance began assigning letter writing to her psychotherapy patients as a method of addressing past psychological and physical abuses, confronting family members, revealing long-held destructive secrets, facing down the various difficulties in their day-to-day lives, and gaining insight into their own thinking and behavior. In Letters Home, Vance describes the methodology of this therapy, which can work for anyone: how to compose the most effective and empowering letters, what pitfalls to avoid, what outcomes to expect. Using letters written by her patients--each one a haunting narrative in itself--she demonstrates how the letters can unearth unresolved conflicts and point toward mechanisms of change. While the stories of abuse compel and disturb us, their message of healing and self-empowerment inspires us. Letters Home offers true self-help.