Journaling is a popular therapeutic intervention used in many different disciplines and psychological approaches. It can benefit clients experiencing different mental health issues, such as anxiety, and it can reduce the number of sick days we take off work.
Why is Journaling Good For You?
Research suggests that journaling can help people accept rather than judge their mental experiences, resulting in fewer negative emotions in response to stressors.
Keeping a record of personal thoughts and feelings is helpful in supporting mental health by breaking away from a nonstop cycle of obsessive thinking and brooding, and improving the awareness and perception of events.
Journaling Benefits Stress Management & Emotional Healing
When journaling for stress management, processing our emotions in written form may even increase the likelihood that we reach out for social support.
This, in turn, leads to emotional healing and improved resilience to stress (WebMD.com, 2021).
Writing in a journal can also help us create the separation needed to accept our feelings and commit to the changes we need to make (Tartakovsky, 2022).
Journaling for Mental Health: Get Started with Clear Instructions
According to Baikie and Wilhelm, the first step in journaling is to ensure clients are comfortable with the process and understand that their thoughts and feelings are kept confidential.
They suggest providing clear instructions on how to get started and providing prompts to help guide clients in writing about their most traumatic experiences or significant emotional issues.
Gain Insight Into Your Thoughts and Feelings
Journaling is a great way to process and gain insight into one’s thoughts, feelings and emotions.
It encourages space from negative or self-critical thinking, enabling the client to recognize that these are simply things they are experiencing, not who they are.
What Mechanisms Are Involved?
While the exact mechanisms involved in journaling that confer physical and mental health benefits are not clear, several psychological processes may be involved – emotional catharsis, increased cognitive processing, repeated exposure and emotional inhibition.
Process Emotions While Reflecting
Reflecting on what has been written in a journal can help with processing emotions and understanding how to proceed.
Clients should aim to capture their thoughts in written form, either through expressive writing or gratitude journaling, several days a week.
Journaling for Mental Health: The Research
A meta-review of research studies suggests that journaling may be a more effective treatment for anxiety in women than men, with benefits maximized when journaling for longer than 30 days (Sohal et al., 2022).
It can also support coping and reduce the impact of stressful events – potentially avoiding burnout and chronic anxiety – while linking written expression with decreased mental distress.
Journaling for Recovery From Mental Illness & Addiction
Journaling appears to be an effective intervention for recovery from depression, PTSD, and addiction.
For example, one innovative approach combined journaling with visualization and appeared to offer lasting support to war veterans (Mims, 2015).
And research has highlighted the ability of journaling to support the recovery of women in residential treatment for substance use disorders (Krentzman et al., 2022).
Learn That Difficult Feelings Will Pass
Through regular journaling, clients can learn that it’s not the situation or stressors that cause difficulty but rather our perception of them.
By understanding this concept, clients can develop an awareness of how difficult feelings will pass with time.
Types of Journaling
There are two forms of journaling commonly used in psychotherapy – expressive writing and gratitude journaling.
The former focuses on the emotional experience rather than events, people or objects, while the latter involves capturing situations, events and interactions for which one is grateful.
Questions to Ask When Journaling
There are several questions clients can ask themselves when journaling such as “What are you most anxious or uncertain about?” and “What three things are you most grateful for today?” Clients should also be encouraged to write about things they enjoy doing, fears, and how they would like their best day to look like.
Try out Powerful Tools for Journaling
Practitioners can also introduce tools like “Experiencing Awe”, “Fostering Admiration in Couples”, “Gratitude Journal” and more.
These can help clients become aware of their strengths, foster positivity in relationships, capture moments of gratitude and practice self-love.
