A trend in the delivery of outpatient mental health services is to give clients homework assignments, i.e., tasks to be performed outside the therapeutic session. This reflects both the influence of cognitive based therapies and the economic reality created by managed care. Reading assignments are particularly effective adjuncts and have been used long before the concept of therapeutic homework was defined. All C.B.S.I. booklets have potential application as outside reading material because they address topics that are reflective of the broad range of problems and issues that are factors underlying client symptoms and presenting problems. A well chosen reading assignment can enhance the therapeutic process by helping clients to gain a better grasp of subjects or psychological processes that are factors in their treatment.
Clients are then better prepared to understand what their therapists or counselors mean.