“Journaling” can be done for a myriad of reasons; it can take many structures; it can be done with greater or lesser frequency; and journalers can write for many different potential readers. It appeals to some and is abhorrent to others. Some practice it faithfully for years and others repeastedly start and stop. One recommendation is to pick up a blank book so common these days and just start writing. What could be simpler? For many, what could be more terrifying? This book is especially for the latter–those who would stare at a blank sheet of paper and freeze.

The authors never explicitly state their intended audience except that they expect some to be in therapy and, if so, this workbook should be used in tandem with it. The exercises are very structured, which is great for ambivalent self-starters, but they can also be done in a different order, making the book also useful to experienced writers or therapists giving assignments to clients. In the Preface, the authors review numerous important aspects of creating an emotionally and physically safe and comfortable environment in which to accomplish these tasks.

Each exercise consists of instructions, sometimes an overview; then there are specific questions with room to answer them; and finally, what are called “process points.” The authors believe that journaling does no good unless it is reviewed or “processed”: simply writing is not enough. Therefore, these “points” are at the end of each session to help the writer process what has been written. They lead directly to the next set of activities.

The first section of the book, “Learning to Speak to Yourself,” helps one to start getting pen on paper in several simple but effective ways. At the end, the Review section covers not only what you wrote but when and how you felt when writing, etc. The authors then move on to “Looking in the Mirror” where different aspects of oneself, especially emotions, are validated. One exercise has the journaler create dialogues between different “selves,” an exercise I have done in the past and which I found particularly effective. Other sections move the focus from the self within to the self in the world — how we see our lives and how we might see them from other perspectives. It helps the journaler to create both mini-autobiographies of his or her past life, and also a description of the future, through learning how to analyze and know oneself.

I will have to count myself as an ambivalent but experienced journaller. After having journalled for years with the aid of a spiritual advisor and a therapist, I quit because it didn’t seem to be helping anymore; it actually made things worse. When I saw that one of the blurbs on the back cover included an author of a workbook that I have and like very much, Mary Ellen Copeland, author of The Depression Workbook, I was intrigued. She considers The Healing Journey to be “by far the best journaling workbook I have ever seen.” I just might pick out some of the Exercises and try my writing hand again.
 

Deborah A. Hill is a former university teacher in Philadelphia, but now lives in Florida on disability due to long-term medical and psychiatric disabilities. Her interest then and now is in the various ways one copes with chronic illness, but especially through religion.

Categories: ClientReviews, SelfHelp, Psychotherapy

Keywords: journals, diaries, exercises