The Clinical Use of Journaling in Therapy: More Than "Dear Diary"
Presented by
Dreya Blume, LCSWIn this workshop, you will explore the history of therapeutic journaling and learn a wide variety of ways to use expressive writing with clients. We will also discuss how to best help clients create and maintain a consistent and fulfilling journaling practice outside of sessions. This training will be experiential and interactive, so please have a notebook or journal on hand!
Overview
6 CEs Recorded: Winter, 2025
Journaling in session or as homework opens up an entirely new dimension of therapeutic processing for our clients. But journaling is so much more than free writing. It also includes many expressive writing techniques you will learn in this training, such as unsent letters, lists of 100, sentence stems, AlphaPoems, dialoguing, clustering, touchstones, and more.
Many clients already journal independently and will be curious about and open to incorporating expressive writing into their treatment. People are thrilled to have the opportunity to utilize creativity during their healing journey.
Journaling therapy is an evidence-based modality and has proven effective in addressing mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, grief and loss, low self-esteem, and substance abuse. Expressive writing also resonates with people of all ages and backgrounds, making it an indispensable part of any clinician’s toolbox.
In this workshop, you will explore the history of therapeutic journaling and learn a wide variety of ways to use expressive writing with clients. We will also discuss how to best help clients create and maintain a consistent and fulfilling journaling practice outside of sessions. This training will be experiential and interactive, so please have a notebook or journal on hand!
**Objectives **
- Learn the history of therapeutic journaling.
- Identify the guidelines that should be used when deciding when and how to use therapeutic journaling.
- Become familiar with the principles behind different therapeutic journaling techniques.
- Discuss the mental health benefits of therapeutic journaling.
- Practice at least ten different techniques of therapeutic journaling.
- Explore how to use therapeutic journaling with different populations.
- Identify how to help clients build a structured and consistent journaling practice.
About the Presenter
Dreya Blume (she/her) is a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, author, and educator. Dreya began working in the mental health field in 2004 in southwest Virginia, where she spent almost two decades serving the local transgender community as a gender therapist. She recently moved to Durham, NC, where she focuses on offering continuing education training to therapists and coaching for private practice clinicians who want to expand their business uniquely. Dreya loves to write and is the author of several books, including, “The Tarot Activity Book: A Collection of Creative and Therapeutic Ideas for the Cards,” “Journaling the Tarot,” “Everyone Has a Story: Using the Hero’s Journey and Narrative Therapy to Reframe the Struggle of Mental Illness,” and “Tarot for Transformation: Using the Major Arcana to Discover Your Best Self and Create a Life Worth Living.” All of Dreya’s books (under her former name, Andy Matzner) are available here: https://dreyablume.com/books. Dreya is also passionate about teaching. Before becoming a mental health clinician, she spent many years teaching English as a Second Language in places such as Japan, Australia, Thailand, and Hawaii. Once in Virginia, Dreya worked as an adjunct professor for almost twenty years at Hollins University, teaching gender studies and sociology in their Master of Liberal Studies program. In addition, she spent twelve years teaching future social workers in the human services program at Virginia Western Community College. Learn more about Dreya on her website: https://dreyablume.com/.