5 Great Journal Ideas for Therapy
Between therapy sessions, it’s easy to come up with questions, good examples of current issues, or notice various symptoms or feelings. Keeping a therapy journal can be super helpful for tracking all of that information, in one place, which you can take with you and share at your next appointment. I’ve searched the web and found what I think to be 5 of the best examples of journal pages you can use as a helpful therapy tool.
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Post Therapy Notes:
A therapy session can cover a lot of topics or a few in depth ones. Keeping a journal in your car (or with you in the office) to jot down notes immediately afterwards can help you remember the most important points. This is useful to refer back to between sessions to keep any techniques/points fresh in your mind and help remind you to jot things down to discuss the next time you meet. Check out this article by Rachel Miller on Buzzfeed that includes Post Therapy Notes and other useful journal pages.
Trigger Tracking:
If you experience panic attacks or other symptoms from triggering events, Lindsay Braman has created a simple Trigger Tracker to use. Not only is this useful information to share with your therapist, but a great way to notice patterns or commonalities between attacks.
Yearly Mood Tracker:
This is a great example of a popular mood tracker that is used in the bullet journal community. One page in your journal can hold a years worth of moods! I also like how this tracker from Tropical.Sloth.Bujo on Instagram gives you the option of tracking symptoms (sick, pain) over the mood color. Your therapist only sees the moods you’re in during sessions. Sharing this tracker with them during your sessions can give them a better overall view of how you are coping on a day to day basis.
Detailed Symptoms and Mood Tracker:
If you feel like you need a more detailed mood/symptom tracker, this one from Therapy Journal might work better for you. This printed tracker is part of a collection created by Therapy Journal that can be purchased through Etsy.
Daily Therapy Journal:
Guest writer on Planner Squad, Mayghan Poirier, shared a therapy journal layout that she created after her therapist recommended she start journaling. I love how it has a small section for notes for each topic, easy to complete level scales, and a clean layout. Learn more about her experience on Planner Squad.
Let me know what you think about these journal spreads. Do you already use any of these? Have you made your own unique therapy journal? I’d love to hear your ideas!
If you haven’t already, check out my post about Choosing a Therapist.