Growth in the Use of the Between-Session Homework Assignments

Abstract

The field of mental health technology is full of advertising from major publishing houses about handouts, sourcebooks, reproducible instructions, and materials that can be used by partcipants. These advertisements attest to the tremendous growth of between-session homework assignments in psychotherapy (Kazantzis, Deane, Ronan, & L’Abate, 2005; Kazantzis & L’Abate, 2007). The rationale for the use of these approaches is relatively simple. We need to make sure that whatever is learned in the professional’s office transfers outside that setting into the home, school, or work. This process has been called “generalization.” Consequently, any mental health intervention must fulfill two requirements: (1) generalization to the home/school/work settings, and (2) duration of positive changes above and beyond the immediacy of the help proffered.