I gave my T two art journals I'd done in previous years. After giving them to her, I felt like "omg, what have I done?" The week in between was torturous and I felt very vulnerable but also like it was the right thing to do.
We discussed the journals over a couple of weeks, and the journal we discussed last was the more honest of the two, I just let rip on those pages and poured out my pain and self-loathing. When we discussed that one I hadn't been prepared for how difficult is was to re-witness these page WITH someone. I was seeing them with fresh eyes. And it was horrible and intense. Before when I'd flipped thru the pages I felt nothing about them, but making sense with them slowly, page by page with my Therapist, well.. she asked questions, took time with every single page, and I felt how powerful the pages were. I didn't even get thru the whole journal, after the 6th page I couldn't take anymore of it and we took a break from it. Some days after that I disclosed some stuff to her and I just couldn't face going back to the journal, so they've stayed with her but we've never returned to them.