Larsen Lene Holm
Research Department, Danish National Center for Grief, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Omega (Westport). 2024 May;89(1):222-246. doi: 10.1177/00302228211070155. Epub 2022 Feb 13.
The benefits of expressive writing have been explored since at least the 1980s. The effect of expressive bereavement-related writing has been studied primarily in college students, yielding inconclusive results. Nonetheless, recent effective, integrated psychotherapy protocols, targeting complicated and prolonged grief, include writing assignments, typically in the form of letters. The present paper explores how and why letter writing might be effective and meaningful as a therapeutic tool in the context of grief psychotherapy. It describes how working with letters, addressed to the deceased, might help facilitate self-disclosure, promote exposure to what is avoided, confront unfinished business, encourage continuing bonds, and help achieve a coherent narrative around experiences with the loss. As a therapeutic tool, letter writing has the potential to be helpful to many bereaved people, as it is a simple, effective, and meaningful way to access and work with relevant clinical material in the context of psychotherapy.
至少从20世纪80年代起，人们就开始探索表达性写作的益处。与丧亲相关的表达性写作的效果主要在大学生中进行了研究，结果尚无定论。尽管如此，最近针对复杂和长期悲伤的有效综合心理治疗方案包括写作任务，通常是以信件的形式。本文探讨了在悲伤心理治疗的背景下，写信作为一种治疗工具可能如何以及为何有效且有意义。它描述了与写给逝者的信件打交道如何有助于促进自我表露、促使面对被回避的事物、处理未完成的事务、鼓励持续的情感纽带，并帮助围绕失去亲人的经历形成连贯的叙述。作为一种治疗工具，写信有可能对许多丧亲者有所帮助，因为它是在心理治疗背景下获取和处理相关临床素材的一种简单、有效且有意义的方式。
