[Alishia88]

Does anyone here keep a diary on your therapy? If so, how and how do you profit?

I thought about doing it, to sort of keep track of what we´re working on, or things that repeatedly bother me.... sort of to get the most out of it.

However, I´m afraid that that might be too "controlling" of me, again and
that I´m an too "eager" student here or something...

[Leah123]

I write about therapy daily, often directly to my therapist, other times just on my own. I have session transcripts for some of our work too as we meet online sometimes for chat sessions. I've gained insight and reassurance from my writings. I can see progress, I can be reminded of my therapist's presence, and I can work things out further in between sessions.

I think you can see from this thread some other folks that find it helpful: http://forums.psychcentral.com/psych...journal-t.html

[RTerroni]

I do all the time (although I like to call it a journal ) and I bring it to session every week.

I don't mainly because I am horribly inconsistent about journalling. You'd think I'd love it as an English teacher; maybe I just get enough of writing constantly in my life that doing it outside of work just doesn't interest me at all.

On the rare occasions I do journal, if it is about therapy, it's usually fairly brief and a recount of what went on. I'm not one to get lost in my head about therapy issues anymore. In the past, I found for me that journalling just caused me to ruminate and spiral downward. My T and I talked about that once. He could see that as a possible problem for me. My husband journals constantly and I do see it as a problem for him because he gets stuck in his head and creates all sorts of havoc up there.

I think if journalling is calming and helps bring insight and resolve to things for a person, that's a really good thing. But if journalling kind of sucks you in and gets you stuck in your head and it is hard to pull out of it, then perhaps it can be a problem.

[Victoria'smom]

I write notes about my therapy and to my therapist even when I'm mad at her I write that too.

[BrokenGirl22]

I do in a way but it's part of my CBT. I write down my anxieties and work through them in the journal. My T then reads through them with me in session. I quite often feel silly and exposed but I'm perservering.

[tinyrabbit]

I write down helpful things my T has said that I want to remember.

[AllyIsHopeful]

I don't keep a journal because we consistently revisit things from the past year...However! When we first started our work together she gave me the assignment to write down each distressing thought that popped into my head throughout the day and in between sessions I put marks next to them each time they came back to haunt me. It was really the beginning of mindfulness and being aware of my biggest stressors and triggers.
The point of this story... Yesterday I was doing some cleaning and going through things to throw stuff away and I found this journal from a year ago. When I opened it I nearly cried. There were about 4 pages of different things I wrote. It was pretty incredible to see the list, especially the items with the most tally marks, and realize those things are no longer issues! It was a wonderful reminder of how far I have come with the help of therapy and even through all the struggles it is so hard to have a single regret after seeing that.