What Is Therapy Homework?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsTypes of Therapy That Involve Homework (and Types That Don’t)BenefitsTips

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Types of Therapy That Involve Homework (and Types That Don’t)

Benefits

Tips

If you’ve recently started going totherapy, you may find yourself being assigned therapy homework. You may wonder what exactly it entails and what purpose it serves.

Therapy homework comprises tasks or assignments that yourtherapistasks you to complete between sessions, saysNicole Erkfitz, DSW, LCSW, a licensed clinical social worker and executive director at AMFM Healthcare, Virginia.

Homework can be given in any form of therapy, and it may come as a worksheet, a task to complete, or a thought or piece of knowledge you are requested to keep with you throughout the week, Dr. Erkfitz explains.

This article explores the role of homework in certain forms of therapy, the benefits therapy homework can offer, and some tips to help you comply with your homework assignments.

Therapy homework can be assigned as part of any type of therapy. However, some therapists and forms of therapy may utilize it more than others.

For instance, a 2018 study notes that therapy homework is an integral part ofcognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

This type of therapy focuses on your current thoughts and behaviors that are unhelpful or harmful and asks you to face them in order to change them. With CBT homework, you might be asked to notice or record your reactions to certain triggers during the week or practice reacting to common triggers in a particular way.

According to Dr. Erkfitz, therapy homework is built into the protocol and framework of CBT, as well asdialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which is a sub-type of CBT more focused on emotional regulation.

Therefore, if you’re seeing a therapist who practices CBT or DBT, chances are you’ll regularly have homework to do.

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However, Dr. Erkfitz explains that if the client is feeling rejuvenated and well after their processing session, for instance, their therapist may ask them to write down a list of times that their positive cognition came up for them over the next week.

“Regardless of the type of therapy, the best kind of homework is when you don’t even realize you were assigned homework,” says Erkfitz.

Benefits of Therapy Homework

There can be many benefits of committing to and completing therapy homework.

It Helps Your Therapist Review Your Progress

The most important part of therapy homework is the follow-up discussion at the next session. The time you spend reviewing with your therapist how the past week went, if you completed your homework, or if you didn’t and why, gives your therapist valuable feedback on yourprogressand insight on how they can better support you.

It Gives Your Therapist More Insight

Homework gives your therapist an inside look into your day-to-day life, which can sometimes be hard to recap in a session. Certain homework assignments keep you thinking throughout the week about what you want to share during your sessions, giving your therapist historical data to review and address.

It Helps Empower You

The sense of empowerment you can gain from utilizing your new skills,setting new boundaries, and redirecting your own cognitive distortions is something a therapist can’t give you in the therapy session. This is something you give yourself. Therapy homework is how you come to the realization that you can do the things you want and need to do in order to make your life better.

“The main benefit of therapy homework is that it builds your skills as well as the understanding that you can do this on your own,” says Erkfitz.

What Not to Say to Your Therapist

Tips for Your Therapy Homework

Below, Dr. Erkfitz shares some tips that can help with therapy homework:

“When the therapy homework starts ‘hitting home’ for you, that’s when you know you’re on the right track and doing the work you need to be doing,” says Erkfitz.

A Word From Verywell

Similar to how school involves classwork and homework, therapy can also involve in-person sessions and homework assignments.

If your therapist has assigned you homework, try to make time to do it. Completing it honestly can help you and your therapist gain insights into your emotional processes and overall progress. Most importantly, it can help you developcoping skillsand practice them, which can boost your confidence, empower you, and make your therapeutic process more effective.

Get Help NowWe’ve tried, tested, and written unbiased reviews of thebest online therapy programsincluding Talkspace, BetterHelp, and ReGain. Find out which option is the best for you.

Get Help Now

We’ve tried, tested, and written unbiased reviews of thebest online therapy programsincluding Talkspace, BetterHelp, and ReGain. Find out which option is the best for you.

2 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Conklin LR, Strunk DR, Cooper AA.Therapist behaviors as predictors of immediate homework engagement in cognitive therapy for depression.Cognit Ther Res. 2018;42(1):16-23. doi:10.1007/s10608-017-9873-6Lebeau RT, Davies CD, Culver NC, Craske MG.Homework compliance counts in cognitive-behavioral therapy.Cogn Behav Ther. 2013;42(3):171-179. doi:10.1080/16506073.2013.763286

2 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Conklin LR, Strunk DR, Cooper AA.Therapist behaviors as predictors of immediate homework engagement in cognitive therapy for depression.Cognit Ther Res. 2018;42(1):16-23. doi:10.1007/s10608-017-9873-6Lebeau RT, Davies CD, Culver NC, Craske MG.Homework compliance counts in cognitive-behavioral therapy.Cogn Behav Ther. 2013;42(3):171-179. doi:10.1080/16506073.2013.763286

Conklin LR, Strunk DR, Cooper AA.Therapist behaviors as predictors of immediate homework engagement in cognitive therapy for depression.Cognit Ther Res. 2018;42(1):16-23. doi:10.1007/s10608-017-9873-6Lebeau RT, Davies CD, Culver NC, Craske MG.Homework compliance counts in cognitive-behavioral therapy.Cogn Behav Ther. 2013;42(3):171-179. doi:10.1080/16506073.2013.763286

Lebeau RT, Davies CD, Culver NC, Craske MG.Homework compliance counts in cognitive-behavioral therapy.Cogn Behav Ther. 2013;42(3):171-179. doi:10.1080/16506073.2013.763286

Hannah Owens, LMSW

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Benefits of Therapy Homework#

It Helps Your Therapist Review Your Progress#

It Gives Your Therapist More Insight#

It Helps Empower You#

Tips for Your Therapy Homework#

A Word From Verywell#

Get Help Now#