Therapeutic Journaling: Tips from a Therapist

Journaling is the practice of writing down your thoughts and feelings regularly. A journal is a private space to express yourself without judgment. You can use it to record and reflect on your experiences, both good and bad. The best part is that journaling is simple, inexpensive, and can easily be modified to fit your needs and goals. And while journaling can’t replace mental health treatment from a qualified professional, it can be a useful addition or way to accelerate your healing or personal growth.

Let’s take a look at how journaling can aid mental health and then I’ll share some tips for getting started.

The Mental Health Benefits of Journaling

Regular journaling can provide numerous mental health benefits including the following.

• Self-Reflection and Insight. Writing about one’s experiences encourages introspection, leading to greater self-awareness and understanding of your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and emotional triggers. Greater awareness can help us make meaningful changes and build healthier habits. It can also help you clarify your values and goals.

• Stress Reduction. Journaling helps reduce stress by providing a safe outlet for expressing worries and fears. It’s a “holding space” for worries and stressors, allowing you to put them aside so you can be productive, mindfully present, or sleep—and return to them when you’re ready. Writing can help you process difficult emotions, gain clarity, reframe negative thoughts, and view situations more objectively. Regular journaling is associated with fewer stress-related doctor visits, lower blood pressure (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005), and decreased insomnia (Harvey & Farrell, 2003).

• Anxiety and Depression. Research has shown that regular journaling can help us cope with distressing experiences and alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety (Chan & Horneffer, 2006; Krpan et al., 2013).

• Healthy Habits. Recording your goals and tracking your progress provides accountability that can also aid in creating healthy habits.

• Emotional Processing. Writing can help us process difficult emotions such as anger, shame, and sadness.  It can help you understand and manage emotions more effectively, leading to improved emotional regulation and resilience.

• Increased Happiness. A journal can help you recognize your accomplishments and how far you’ve come. It can also help you remember pleasurable experiences and happy memories. According to happiness expert Gretchen Rubin, reflecting on good times boosts happiness in the present.

How to Start Journaling

To begin, choose a medium for journaling. I prefer a notebook and a good quality pen, but there are also many apps to choose from or you can use a basic Word document. 

Don’t worry about proper grammar or spelling; the goal is to express yourself freely. You can use bullet points or run-on sentences. Your writing can be sloppy or neatly printed. Doodle in the margins, if you like. Make your journal your own!

Schedule Time for Journaling

It doesn’t matter when you journal, but it is important to set aside a consistent time; this will make it easier for you to do it. Some people find that writing in the morning helps them set intentions for the day, while others prefer to journal at the end of the day so they can reflect on the day’s events and clear their minds before bed. You can experiment with different times to see what works best for you.

I recommend scheduling 10-20 minutes of quiet, uninterrupted time to journal daily. Choosing a comfortable place to write, investing in quality materials, such as notebooks and pens, or pairing it with a pleasurable activity, such as drinking your morning coffee, can make journaling a more enjoyable experience.

Types of Therapeutic Journaling

Journaling can take many forms and you may want to try a few or combine them to meet your needs.

• Free-form journaling is the most straightforward. It’s unstructured so you can write about whatever comes to mind and allows for maximum creativity. It’s flexible but can be intimidating if you’re not sure where to begin.

• Guided journaling involves using prompts to direct your writing and guide you toward self-reflection, problem-solving, and developing new insights and skills. Guided journals address a wide array of mental health and interpersonal challenges, such as grief, anxiety, anger management, setting boundaries, and parenting. Guided journaling can be particularly helpful if you struggle with knowing what to write about or want more guidance to overcome a specific struggle. Some of my favorites are listed at the end of this article.

• Gratitude journaling is another popular approach that involves writing about things you are thankful for. This practice can shift your focus from negative to positive experiences, enhancing your overall mood and outlook.

• Bullet journaling combines elements of a journal, to-do list, and planner. It involves bullet-point lists and short entries to track tasks, goals, and moods or symptoms. Many people enjoy using colorful pens and art to decorate their bullet journals.

• One-sentence journaling is simply writing one sentence per day that reflects your experiences or emotions. This is an easy way to start a journaling habit and you may be surprised by how much is captured in only a few words.

What to Journal About

As noted earlier, journaling is incredibly flexible. You can write about anything that comes to mind. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Things you’re worried about
• The events of your day and how you felt about them
• A memory that continues to be upsetting
• Something you’re grateful for
• A problem that you haven’t been able to solve
• Something stressful
• A happy memory
• Your goals for the next week, month, or year
• Something that makes you angry (or sad or afraid)
• A situation that you can’t stop thinking about
• Something you’re proud of
• Your dreams
• Record your mood 3 times per day (try a descriptive word and a number from 1-10 to describe the strength of the feeling)
• Keep track of habits you’re trying to make or break (such as water consumption or smoking)
• Try these free journaling prompts: Gratitude Journaling Prompts or Questions for Self-Understanding

Journaling in Therapy

Journaling can be a valuable adjunct to therapy. Your therapist may give you journaling prompts to complete between sessions or suggest a guided journal. You can also ask your therapist how you might incorporate journaling into your treatment.

Sharing the insights you gain from journaling with your therapist can deepen the therapeutic work. For example, if you gain new insights about your behavior or emotional triggers through journaling, you can explore them further in therapy. Your therapist can also provide support and guidance when difficult emotions or memories emerge from journaling.

In addition, tracking your moods, thoughts, and behaviors can give you and your your therapist valuable information for developing coping strategies or fine-tuning therapeutic interventions and goals.

Journaling can also keep the momentum of therapy going between sessions. Journaling can be a way to practice or reinforce what you’re learning in therapy.

Final Thoughts

Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to journal. The most important thing is to find a method that works for you and to make it a consistent part of your routine. Give it a try and see how journaling can help you build resilience and navigate life’s challenges with confidence and clarity!

I’d love to hear about how journaling has improved your mental health. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Recommended Guided Journals

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References

Baikie, K. A., & Wilhelm, K. (2005). Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 11(5), 338-346.

Chan, K. M., & Horneffer, K. (2006). Emotional expression and psychological symptoms: A comparison of writing and drawing. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 33(1), 26-36.

Harvey, A. G., & Farrell, C. (2003). The efficacy of a Pennebaker-like writing intervention for poor sleepers. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 1(2), 115–124.

Krpan, K. M., Kross, E., Berman, M. G., Deldin, P. J., Askren, M. K., & Jonides, J. (2013). An everyday activity as a treatment for depression: the benefits of expressive writing for people diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 150(3), 1148-1151.

©2024 Dr. Sharon Martin, LCSW. All rights reserved. Photos courtesy of Canva.com.

This article was adapted from one the author published on Psychology Today.