Why Attend an Expressive Writing Group?
As a mental health therapist who isn’t explicitly trained in journal therapy, one might question my decision to offer a group focusing on the tool of expressive writing. Sure, I attended one therapeutic journaling workshop several years ago with Kate Thompson, and I have used my own journal for therapeutic benefit for the last 8 or more years, but I am not a specialist in journal therapy. Instead, my specializations are group therapy, gestalt therapy, and trauma-informed care. In gestalt therapy, we treat our therapeutic interventions as experiments; I see journaling as an experiment. An experiment in what, exactly? Well, an experiment in facing our own truths, in speaking to what our souls really want to say, in having privacy to think our own thoughts and feel our own feelings before sharing them with others. Then, as it is group therapy after all, one has the opportunity to speak those truths to others, and find authenticity and community, maybe even a sense of belonging.
Gestalt groups, and interpersonal process groups, are known for their intensity; journaling not so much. Though journaling can be a cathartic experience for many, it is not an activity known to stretch you to your breaking point, overwhelm you, or ultimately leave you feeling embarrassed in front of other people. Journaling can serve as a gentle introduction to the world of emotions, which is the realm of therapy. It can also serve as a natural way of engaging with CBT and mindfulness; instead of challenging our own thoughts in a harsh or invalidating way, we can read over what we have written and start to create space between ourselves and our thoughts, seeing them literally separate from ourselves as they are written out on the page. Creating space between our identity and our thoughts is known as cognitive defusion, a term popularized by CBT. In meditation practices, we are also taught to disentangle ourselves from our thoughts, and practice being fully here, in the present moment. Journaling can be less daunting than meditation, perhaps even less dangerous, as sometimes meditation and breathing exercises can trigger retraumatization for some trauma survivors. Journaling is something anyone can do; it does not require you to close your eyes, follow any particular or complicated technique, learn any new fancy words, or reveal yourself to another human being (beyond yourself). Easy, right? Of course, there are specific techniques from therapeutic journaling literature, and complicated or intense feelings that can arise in the act of journaling, however the mere commonplaceness of the word ‘journaling’ and the relative familiarity of it to most people provides an easy ‘in’ to the world of therapy.
In our increasingly surveilled world, having one place where you can have privacy can be a breath of fresh air. In therapeutic journaling groups, it is not required to share your writing. (Perhaps others may lead their groups differently, but I recall from the workshop I went to that it is important to present everything as an invitation, not as a ‘have to’.) Having the autonomy to share when you are truly ready to share, to share when YOU decide to share, can be extremely empowering.
Taking time to be with our thoughts before we share them with others can help us soothe our own impulsivity, gather more information about what we really want to share with others, and allow us to share more meaningfully when we are ready to share. Below, I’m sharing an image of The Gestalt Cycle of Experience. Coming from gestalt therapy, impulsivity would be to move too quickly to Action from Sensation, Awareness, and Mobilization. Journaling allows us to spend more time in Sensation and Awareness before Mobilizing and Acting toward sharing with others. It allows us to slow down and be with ourselves before being with others. This can also be quite healing for those of us that prioritize others over ourselves; journaling prioritizes us and our own experiences over those of others. As said before, meditation, talk therapy, and other mindfulness-based practices can also help us slow down and notice what’s happening at the sensation and awareness levels, however journaling allows us to stick the thought down and really look at it, taking even more time with it before our mind flits off to the next thing. The purpose is to really look at the contents of our mind, not only come back to our breath and let go of the mind. While meditation practices help us work to let go of the ‘ego,’ journaling can help us build our relationship to ‘ego’ and even develop ‘ego strength’ as we come to recognize who we are and narrativize our lives. Narrativizing is not always a bad thing.
Image features the gestalt cycle of experience, also known as the cycle of awareness.
Image found on this website:
In transpersonal psychotherapy, which I trained in during my Master’s Degree program at Naropa University, we consider the idea that you have to have an ego before letting it go. In other words, if you’re going to experience ego death or let go of the self into some kind of experience of wholeness or oneness or dissolution, you need to have a self first. Journaling, unlike meditation-based practices, can help you develop and expand your sense of self. Writing your life down allows you to reflect on your life, consider what you want to change, take inventory of your own strengths, weaknesses, and habits, and can allow you to grow in positive ways towards your own goals. Non-Western cultures tend to prioritize the non-linearity of healing, while Western models tend to be linear and focus more on developing the “I” aka the self, and both are valuable. Goals are present in most forms of Western psychotherapy, as are expectations that a person will change over time; journaling fits into this model. In journaling, we don’t end up where we started, we move forward on a linear journey across the page, accumulating pages, and developing a sense of self. Though you could theoretically journal in an altered state, or write in a big circle twisting into itself like a whirlpool, or write on a mobius strip, or write purely contemplatively attempting to not be attached to whatever comes out that’s not the kind of journaling we are talking about here. In the kind of journaling group I’m talking about, we are journaling from a state of everyday consciousness, writing lines from left to right across the page, and filling up page after page. It's okay if we are attached to our pages; as they came from us, they may be experienced as part of ourselves. There is a development of one’s self included in journaling, as we narrativize our lives and construct our realities.
Ultimately, the possible benefits of journaling in a therapeutic environment are infinite, though they do require one to be open to those experiences. I hope that reading this article has made you wonder about adding journaling to your self-care routine, or joining my group that is starting in January 2027.
This article was made without the help of AI.
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