Art journaling

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Lucia Capacchione · 1976

What it is

Art journaling (also called visual or creative journaling) is not a single manualised therapy. It is a practice: keeping a dated book of images (drawing, scribble, collage, doodle, paint), usually paired with writing about those images. Several authors have built methods around it. Capacchione…

Format

• No source gives a manualised phase model with session counts. Three published structures exist, followed by a clinical course of the writer's synthesis.
• A. Open Studio Process session (group or individual)

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Phase 3, deepening (roughly sessions 5–12, or as long as the therapy's focus requires). Two-handed dialogue, inner critic and inner child work, body map, dream and altered-book work, all linked to the treatment goals. Move on when the client can stay within their window of tolerance while doing it and uses the journal to self-regulate.
• Version followed: a composite. The core is Lucia Capacchione's Creative Journal Expressive Arts (CJEA) methods as her institute summarises them (2026 summary document), checked against her own SoulfulLiving essay, her IAJW council profile and her publishers' book pages. The session structure of intention, art-making and witness writing comes from the Open Studio Process (Pat B. Allen, Dayna Block and Deborah Gadiel,…
• Professional frame. No regulated profession or protected title covers art journaling as such.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• confidentiality of the clinician's journal.
• use it as the minimum-effort entry on low days.
• pain conditions. Skip tensing any painful area.
• clear floor space, and keep the volume moderate.
• an empty journal. Move to a light prompt (C1 or C8).

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.