Therapeutic Journaling

What is therapeutic journaling?

Therapeutic journaling is the process of writing down our thoughts, emotions and experiences.

It differs from the process of recording daily events in a diary, which many of us are probably familiar with. Therapeutic journaling is about delving a little deeper; writing in a way that helps us to make sense of our internal experiences, learn, and gain new perspectives on our challenges. Writing about our thoughts and emotions enables us to express them in a way that can help work through difficulties and move forward.

If you are feeling stressed, anxious or down, try therapeutic journaling. It’s one tool that can help improve your wellbeing. While it’s not a total replacement for therapy, it can help you to create meaning and feel better, or can be a helpful addition to traditional talking therapies.

How to keep a therapeutic journal

There is no right or wrong way to keep a therapeutic journal. However, the following tips might help you to get started:

Create a routine: Many people begin journaling with the best intentions, but find that the habit is difficult to establish. Scheduling time in advance is one way to enhance your commitment to journaling. For example, you might schedule that every day between 5 and 5:15pm you’ll write your journal entry.
Find somewhere quiet: Find somewhere quiet to sit and write, where you won’t be disturbed by other people or alerts on your phone.
Topic: Consider writing about any events that have brought up difficult emotions for you, such as sadness, anxiety, anger, shame or guilt. A note on emotions: If the emotions are strong and you find it difficult to cope with them, it’s best to stop writing and seek help from a therapist.
Write: You might spend 15 or 20 minutes exploring your thoughts and feelings about your difficult experience. That said, there aren’t limitations to what you write about, and many people find that the flow of writing leads them onto quite different thoughts and ideas. That's okay! Let your ideas flow, without worrying too much about spelling or grammar.
Repeat: Try to write every day, even if it’s only just for a few minutes.
Therapy: Many people start journaling when they are feeling stressed or are going through a difficult experience. If you find that journaling is not helping you, reach out for help from a trained mental health professional. Therapeutic journaling is a useful tool that can be combined with therapy sessions. Learn about how to find a therapist here.

Therapeutic journaling and mental health

Journaling can help people who are experiencing symptoms of common mental health challenges such as:

It can also be a tool used to compliment progress in talking therapies.

Additionally, researchers have found that therapeutic journaling can help people who are experiencing physical health problems such as chronic illnesses (1, 2).

However, if you have experienced trauma, journaling should be approached cautiously. It can create more distress if not undertaken with the help of a mental health professional. If you would like to journal, it’s best to discuss this in therapy first.

Benefits of therapeutic journaling

Therapeutic journaling can help improve physical and psychological wellbeing in various ways, by:

Keeping a record of ideas and concepts, or things you learn in therapy
Tracking your progress
Helping to make sense of thoughts and experiences, and organizing them in a meaningful way
Helping you to recognize patterns in thoughts, feelings or behavior
Providing an opportunity for self-reflection
Providing an opportunity to consider experiences from alternative perspectives or practice helpful thoughts
Helping to boost our immune system (1)

How does therapeutic journaling work?

It’s likely that therapeutic journaling can help people in various ways. A recent study found that therapeutic journaling can help to improve psychological wellbeing by:

Reducing intrusive thoughts
Decreasing the avoidance of negative thoughts
Improving working memory

By doing this, it is thought people become able to deal with stress more effectively (3).

Therapy types to consider combining with therapeutic journaling

To maximize the effectiveness of therapy, try journaling alongside just about any therapy type, including:

Sources and references:

http://www.gruberpeplab.com/teaching/psych3131_summer2015/documents/14.2_Pennebaker1997_Writingemotionalexperiences.pdf
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/advances-in-psychiatric-treatment/article/emotional-and-physical-health-benefits-of-expressive-writing/ED2976A61F5DE56B46F07A1CE9EA9F9F
https://www.apa.org/monitor/sep01/keepdiary
http://projects.hsl.wisc.edu/SERVICE/modules/12/M12_CT_TherapeuticJournaling.pdf