As another poster stated, for me journaling doesn't help much because it's not going nowhere. Or being read or understood by anyone, unless of course you take it to session.
I do have a habit of being able to open up more in writing rather than speaking, my old T did tell me to reduce them and changed to no response at times. This hurt me and felt like a rejection.
I understood it was time provoking etc and probably would have been willing to pay slightly extra because I did really find it helpful.
The new one said I can email, she will either write a small response back or not respond but does read it and will bring certain points up in session I suppose if needed. That's ok with me now and has been a clear understanding from the start. However with old T I saw it simply as rejection.