Conversation and Writing

Research in women's psychology shows that gaining voice, for women, is important in overcoming emotional and psychological problems, including eating disorders where the body becomes the voice in a situation of silence and disconnection. Integrating such research with a postmodern, systemic approach, this article shows how therapeutic conversation and writing facilitate the recovery of a bulimic woman and produce a new circle of communication that alters prior meanings, relationships, and identity. Drawing on the principles of collaboration and intersubjectivity, this approach centers on the "poetics of voice," or the language practices sponsoring the development of voice in women. In accordance, this article incoporates the voice of the client as a commentator on the essay.