Journal October 2026 Special DISPUK Release_Full Version - Flipbook - Page 30
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For me, this roundtable meeting marked the beginning of a therapeutic journey
involving letter-writing.
The assignment I left the room with consisted of 15-minute letters that centered
on my family9s voice and employed a sharp narrative approach—and it made a
huge difference for me. It helped me. Perhaps letter-writing isn9t about writing
long and beautifully. Letter-writing is about writing with the family9s knowledge at
the center and with my persistent curiosity as the driving force behind questions
that can generate content for the next conversation.
Content that I cannot guess my way toward when I write the letter. Whether the
letter is short, long, or somewhere in between, I saw the opportunity to write in a
decentralized way by placing the family9s knowledge at the center AND in an
influential manner by asking questions to which I myself do not know the
answers. At the same time, the written word allowed me to delve deeply into the
wording of each individual question.
And so, I wrote narrative letters after every conversation during the 9 years I
worked in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Denmark—9 years with the most
wonderful families and a multitude of conversations accompanied by letters,
which I wrote in my small, sparsely furnished office at the hospital. These were
letters that I brought with me and read aloud in consultation rooms with red,
worn-out sofas and water on the table because we9d cut back on coffee.
As the system came under increasing pressure, narrative practice was pushed
aside for me, and I started as an instructor and consultant at DISPUK—a place
with a narrative heart, but where I quickly realized there was a lot to do. So, for a
while, the letters took a backseat to everything else I also had to find time for.
Sticking with It
The first conversations at DISPUK felt strange. Not least because the rooms were
different, the families came voluntarily, and I was no longer part of a hospital with
all the bureaucracy and guidelines that it entails. On second thought, what
probably felt most unfamiliar was starting my sessions without a letter—without
For Me, Starting a Conversation Without a Letter Feels Like I9m Only Half a Therapist
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, October 2026 Special Release, p. 23-47
www.journalcnt.com
