Feel & Deal Telegrams
The Lab Method’s Feel & Deal Telegrams support families to communicate about complicated feelings and experiences without a therapist by their side. If you’re feeling “stuck” with your child and don’t know how to reconnect, a Telegram is a go-to letter template that will help loosen emotional or communication log jams and get conversation flowing again.
Writing a Telegram helps family members slow down and share their inner experiences through writing rather than talking (which can sometimes feel too stressful. Receiving one creates space for reflection and understanding. Kids and parents can use them to communicate about hard stuff when hard stuff becomes too hard to actually talk about.
Downloadable Telegrams
CLEANING UP MESSES BETWEEN PEOPLE
These Telegrams help families recover from big and little breakdowns and heal the wounds that can naturally happen between family members. The more we practice “cleaning up” our messes with our loved ones along the way (rather than ignoring them and hoping that everyone forgets), the more we can deepen the security and trust we feel with each other.
DEALING WITH DIFFICULT FEELINGS
These Telegrams help you understand what’s happening on the inside. They’re here to help you identify what you need when you are struggling and to help you be brave to communicate your feelings and needs to those who love you.
COPING WITH A DIFFICULT EXPERIENCE
It can be such a puzzle to figure out what we are feeling inside or to communicate about a hard moment. When we practice identifying difficult feelings and staying with them a little bit at a time, we feel better. This Telegram helps parents and teachers guide kids to identify what difficult feelings are happening for them on the INSIDE.
DEALING WITH ANXIETY
This telegram is for anyone who wants to understand his/her own unique anxiety, or moments of panic. This telegram helps the user study their experience, feel relief, and communicate with family members or therapists about what he/she is discovering.
This telegram is meant to be used by yourself or between a caregiver and child of any age.
Telegram Pads
FINDING THE GOOD TELEGRAM (50 pages)
This telegram invites you to go on a hunt for what’s working around you and share what you notice. You can offer “feel-good” fuel to the people around you by just appreciating them directly! It’s not just the receiver of the telegram who gets fueled; the sender gets a feel-good boost too. So do something new - find the GOOD around you and share what you find! You can fill someone’s tank right now with one telegram.
MAKING REPAIRS TELEGRAM (50 pages FOR ADULTS)
This telegram walks you through the steps to clean up a relational misstep so that intimate partnerships can endure and deepen after natural and expectable ruptures occur. Ruptures left unattended are known to go ‘underground,’ popping up as resentment and emotional distance later. Protect your relationship by cleaning up with your partner whenever you sense something has gotten off track.
GRATITUDE TELEGRAM Pad (50 pages for partners and family)
HIGH OCTANE FUEL FOR YOUR RELATIONSHIP!
Use it to train your brain to scan for what’s working with the person you care about. The experience of completing this telegram can immediately change how you feel about your partner and help you notice all that your partner brings to the table when you may have overlooked them. These telegrams function as instant salve for a strained or brittle connection and a wondrous boost for an already connected couple.
