[maymie]

So I finally chose a therapist but I'm not sure I am going to be 100% on board with her. She wants me to keep a daily journal. I haven't kept a journal in years. I got tired of carrying a notebook with me especially when I had to deal with prying eyes. I am not sure I'm totally comfortable with keeping a journal for her to read or go over with me. It kind of bothers me. Is this common practice or am I just being weird about it?
Also if you have any suggestions for a digital journal that is preferably we based and is either free or inexpensive please let me know. All of them I've found are either expensive or have very little storage.

[ChavInAHat]

Have you thought about a private blog on somewhere like Wordpress? When you set it up you can make the username and password something you can both use and when you blog but post as private so no one else can see it but T can log in?

I send my T encrypted word files over email. We have a password that only we know.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ellahmae]

I use Diaro. It's an app that is both phone/web accessible.

ETA: you can tag, sort, file, store in your dropbox, add photos, etc. The cost is free for the basic. It also is password protected as well.

[gayleggg]

I use DayOne and it has password protection. I like it because you can tag items that you want to be able to find like days I'm depressed. My counselor doesn't read it but wants me to use it as a tool to track my moods. We are trying to see if I have SAD. I've forgotten how much it costs but I think the mobile version in $4.99.

[AncientMelody]

I don't think it's an unreasonable request, I think journaling is a very good exercise. However your thoughts are still yours not hers, so I don't think you should feel obligated to share every detail. I journaled regularly during my first year in therapy. It helped a lot. I would bring it with me to help guide our sessions, but rarely did we actually read together. I left my journal at her office once by accident and she locked it in her drawer and left it in there until I could get it, so it was clear she respected my privacy as well.

[Semi-depressed]

Originally Posted by AncientMelody

I don't think it's an unreasonable request, I think journaling is a very good exercise. However your thoughts are still yours not hers, so I don't think you should feel obligated to share every detail. I journaled regularly during my first year in therapy. It helped a lot. I would bring it with me to help guide our sessions, but rarely did we actually read together. I left my journal at her office once by accident and she locked it in her drawer and left it in there until I could get it, so it was clear she respected my privacy as well.

^ this.

And, I believe at least summarizing each therapy session buy writing it out, or telling it to a safe person helps process what you learned. It forces you to remember the most important points. For me it often has more impact than the therapy session itself. Think of it as a big free bonus impact.

Up to you what you share. I often share realisations, or bring up things from last session that I would like to discuss further.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Ellahmae]

I spend a few minutes after each session before driving home writing down a summary of the session and any thoughts or feelings I had or something I want to bring up again in a future session.

Originally Posted by Semi-depressed

^ this.

And, I believe at least summarizing each therapy session buy writing it out, or telling it to a safe person helps process what you learned. It forces you to remember the most important points. For me it often has more impact than the therapy session itself. Think of it as a big free bonus impact.

Up to you what you share. I often share realizations, or bring up things from last session that I would like to discuss further.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Cinnamon_Stick]

I keep a therapy journal but it was my idea. I write down everything that is said during my sessions (I record them also) and I use the notes to further reflect on the session and to refer to when I am having a hard time or need to remember something. I think its one if the best things I have done to really maximize my therapy. My T thinks its a good idea. She doesn't make me show her anything I don't want to. I might end up showing her someday.

[AllHeart]

Originally Posted by maymie

I am not sure I'm totally comfortable with keeping a journal for her to read or go over with me. It kind of bothers me. Is this common practice or am I just being weird about it?

Therapy is all about you. If you aren't comfortable with it, then don't do it. A good T will understand and respect your boundaries.

As far as T's wanting to read or go over a client's journal, I think that is up to the client to decide. A journal is 100% personal to the owner. A T can ask the client to share, but, it should never be insisted upon.

[AnaWhitney]

My T has encouraged me to write in a journal. She said I did not have to share what I wrote but it could be helpful if I did. I've shared most of what I wrote but even the stuff I did not share was good to process. It has helped big time and I'd have been lost without it.

My t encouraged me to journal in the beginning and I've been doing it religiously ever since. It's been really helpful for me in sorting out stuff. I do that here on PC a lot too, of course. She has never asked to read my journal. We do a lot of dream work so I do always read my dreams to her, because I have a dream journal as well. I have read her things from my journal, emailed her things from it, but she's never asked to read it. And I've never offered. I keep my journals in spiral notebooks, and I have a big box of them in my closet from over 4 years of therapy. I pull the box out from time to time and read back in my earlier journals and it's really cool to see my growth, how different I sounded in the beginning. One bad thing about hard-copy journals: I have to be vigilant not to leave one somewhere. I always bring it with me to work, because I write in it on my lunch break, and more than once I have gotten the sudden sick feeling in my stomach that I left it in the break room or something (I never have). If anyone read it and knew it was mine.... I shudder to think about it. My h knows about them but he is too lazy to bother reading them. Which is a good thing.

[iheartjacques]

I love writing but I don't want my paranoid husband snooping through them again. I have an online diary. It's been a long time since I've written in it. I should get back into it.

[kecanoe]

I journal on my computer, and then only take in the parts I want to share. I usually write stuff as though no one is going to read it (otherwise I'd be consciously or unconsciously editing), then read it over and decide if I am going to take it to session

[maymie]

Well I was looking for a journal that wasn't a blog. I'm not a fan of blogs even if it is private. Thank you for the idea though.

Originally Posted by ChavInAHat

Have you thought about a private blog on somewhere like Wordpress? When you set it up you can make the username and password something you can both use and when you blog but post as private so no one else can see it but T can log in?

I send my T encrypted word files over email. We have a password that only we know.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My T has never suggested I keep a journal. But I do journal sometimes just to get everything out. I hope you find something that works for you!

[maymie]

I actually may try this one. I like this idea.

Originally Posted by Ellahmae

I use Diaro. It's an app that is both phone/web accessible.

ETA: you can tag, sort, file, store in your dropbox, add photos, etc. The cost is free for the basic. It also is password protected as well.

[Katieissweet]

I honestly write in my journal 24/7,how do people afford therapists,I cannot imagine talking about myself all the time to someone,I would feel im self centered.I would like to talk to a wise elder though.

[musinglizzy]

I have a Gmail account, and I simply use Google Docs for my therapy journal...when I kept one!

[Bipolar Warrior]

Originally Posted by gayleggg

I use DayOne and it has password protection. I like it because you can tag items that you want to be able to find like days I'm depressed. My counselor doesn't read it but wants me to use it as a tool to track my moods. We are trying to see if I have SAD. I've forgotten how much it costs but I think the mobile version in $4.99.

I use Day One as well, on my laptop. It's a good app.

My journal entries are about things I have discovered or learned about myself in session, and things that occur to me between sessions that either builds on what I learned in session or is something new I might bring to the next one. Sometimes they're also about my feelings, particularly my maternal transference for my therapist at university, and recently I have been writing a lot of "letters" to her that I would never send but need to get out of my system somehow.

I also occasionally write a journal entry if I notice significant progress in an area of my life, just in general, relating it back to what I've learned in therapy to make this progress possible. I then also write an entry if I experience a setback.

Keeping a therapy journal has been a great help to me, as writing it down stops me from forgetting the things I've learned, and allows me to reflect more around it and possibly delve further into it on my own. It can be a great therapy tool, but whether or not it would be beneficial is entirely individual I suppose.

[junkDNA]

i used to journal and let my T read my journal. he bought me 2 journals and i would write in one and he would keep it while giving me the other one and we would trade them off