How often do you recommend journaling in your practice for teens?
Journaling can be an amazing and introspective practice and through this expression of self major benefits follow like boosting mood, managing stress, and lowering anxiety and depression. Journaling also has other amazing benefits like improving immune function and helping with memory.
So what is journaling exactly? Does it need to be sitting down, cracking open your journal and writing “Dear Diary…”?
Well… no, not exactly. I mean it could be if you are into that kind of thing BUT it can also be so much more! Journaling can take the form of good old pen and paper (my favorite) but you can also journal in the form of a bullet journal, daily tracking, a gratitude journal, or through art. Really, the definition of journaling is “a record of experiences, ideas, or reflections kept regularly for private use”. Nowhere in this definition does it have any rules on how you might do this practice or with what medium! Now, when it comes to teens some hate it and others love it! And when it comes to the ones who are open and willing to participate in this practice there can be barriers. For some it’s not feeling like there is enough privacy, worrying about feeling silly putting their feelings down, not knowing what to write, or just not having the exact right journal to start in. I wanted to share with you something that can be helpful for teens who don’t know where to start and their creative juices aren’t flowing. I’ve put together a FREE downloadable resource of 45 journal prompts that can help with emotional expression and exploration for teens. I’ve broken them down into two categories to help with decision making. The first category is to help promote self esteem, empowerment and to discover resources. The second category is for deeper emotional expression and exploration into more of the difficult topics. So how do you use this resource? Well you can use it for suggestions for teens in session to journal between sessions, give them the entire handout for ideas, OR use it in session for some introspective journaling or prompts for creative art expression or sand tray! In short… the sky is the limit! Grab your FREE journal prompt download HERE! If you are looking for more support in your work with teens and tweens in the playroom check out my course Growing Out Of The Playroom: Teens and Tweens in Play Therapy! Loading...
2 Comments
Tina
12/29/2022 04:51:28 pm
Hi Ann. I love your enthusiasm and positive creativity. It seems you are showing us how to communicate:your Problems matter and it’s normal to have things to work through. Let’s make it enjoyable.
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Ann Meehan
1/3/2023 05:56:27 am
Ohh my goodness thank you Tina!! I am always loving to see the way my resources trickle into our professions outside of therapy AND I'm so glad you are using these resources to help the students you serve!!! You definitely have a difficult job!
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Hi, there!I'm Ann Meehan, an LPCC, Loading... Archives
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