The Way of the Journal: A Journal Therapy Workbook for Healing

In The Way of the Journal, therapist and author Kathleen Adams, M.A. teaches her trademark approach to using reflective writing as a therapeutic process. Adams' ten-step "quick and easy" method was created to provide sexual abuse survivors and dissociative clients with ways to maximize structure, balance, and permission while minimizing overstimulation and overwhelming feeling. Developed while working with dissociative disorders patients at a national treatment center, The Way of the Journal can be used by all survivors, as well as anyone in pain who wishes to gain greater self-understanding. In a well-designed workbook format, The Way of the Journal teaches 10 fundamental journalkeeping skills that are helpful for those in treatment for a variety of emotional difficulties, and that are of particular benefit to people with dissociative diagnoses. Adams begins the workbook with exercises for short, contained journal entries and proceeds to demonstrate looser, open-ended journal writing techniques. All of these exercises can be completed in less than 30 minutes a day over a two-week period, giving the writer a concrete sense of progress and accomplishment. Each section is followed by "So, how was it?," an evaluation of the specific journal technique used, assisting clients and, if desired, their therapists in identifying which techniques will work best for them in ongoing journal therapy. The Way of the Journal finishes with a "Resources" chapter (including a significant list of other books on journal writing), 10 reasons why journal writing is a powerful aid to therapy, and journal therapy interventions for common clinical situations.