Art journaling

1. Introduction

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, Open Studio Project, Chicago and Evanston). Prompt types come from Cathy Malchiodi's 2013 visual journaling compilation. Ganim & Fox, Visual Journaling: Going Deeper than Words (Quest Books, 1999), is known here only from publisher and library-catalogue descriptions, so its six-week plan is not reproduced [uncertain: weekly contents not verified]. Confirmed from published pages: CJEA certification was a year-long work-study programme Capacchione directed, her ATR and REAT credentials, the dominant-hand question and non-dominant-hand answer dialogue, and the full Mercer et al. (2010) citation. Not verified [uncertain]: current CJEA certification requirements, step lists as printed in Capacchione's books, and the Ganim & Fox weekly plan.

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 developed hers from her own journaling during an undiagnosed illness in 1973. She named the Creative Journal Method and the Whole-Brain Two-Handed Method as 1976 developments [source: Maisel blog quoting Capacchione; CJEA summary; Capacchione Institute, Introduction to CJEA, which also dates the Inner Child Reparenting Method to 1976, the Body-Mind Healing-Arts Method to 1980 and the Visioning® Method to 1994]. Ganim & Fox present image-making as reaching feelings that words, shaped by learned beliefs, filter out. Their book offers a six-week plan for reducing stress, exploring conflicts and overcoming obstacles [source: Red Wheel/Weiser and 49th Shelf book pages].

How change is thought to happen:

Making an image gives form to the sensory, felt side of an experience.
Writing about the image then turns that experience into language and sequence, which helps the person step back from intrusive thoughts [source: Malchiodi, Substack 'Visual journaling as a reflective practice'].
Capacchione locates the main block in self-judgment. Non-dominant-hand work and dialogue give voice to the suppressed creative or vulnerable self and tame the inner critic [source: Maisel/Capacchione; CJEA summary].
Images are fully worked with only when they are witnessed: by the maker in writing, or by an empathic other who does not judge [source: Malchiodi; Open Studio Process].

Professional frame. No regulated profession or protected title covers art journaling as such.

Capacchione (ATR, REAT) directed the CJEA certification training. It was an international, year-long work-study programme for professionals who apply journaling therapeutically and educationally [source: IAJW council profile; SoulfulLiving author note]. The CJEA summary says certified facilitators run workshops, classes and support groups, and licensed clinicians add the certification to their practice. It also separates CJEA from 'traditional therapy' delivered by a licensed therapist [source: CJEA summary]. Who runs the programme now, and its hours, levels and entry requirements, are not stated in the available sources [uncertain].
Open Studio Process facilitators are trained by its originators or their trainees [source: Cancer Lifeline page].
When journaling is delivered as art therapy, the art therapy frame applies: HCPC registration and BAAT in the UK; AATA and the ATCB credential (e.g. ATR-BC) in the US [synthesis: standard Domain VIII frame; not stated in the journaling sources].
A psychotherapist can use simple journaling prompts as an adjunct within their own competence. Interpreting imagery in depth, trauma processing through art, and running art-based groups need art therapy training or supervision [synthesis].

Materials and physical safety [synthesis unless tagged]:

Use non-toxic, labelled art materials, and use water-based glue sticks rather than solvent glues in small rooms.
Scissors and craft knives need supervision with children and with clients at risk of self-harm. Count them out and back in inpatient or secure settings.
Clay dust: wipe surfaces wet, don't sweep dry.
Where paint drips, protect clothing and floors. The Open Studio Process explicitly welcomes mess [source: Gapers Block].
Check for latex or other allergies before using some markers and glues.

2. Framework

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) [source: Gapers Block; Cancer Lifeline]

Settle in (about 30 minutes in the Cancer Lifeline format): arrive, look over the materials.
Write an intention: a short, present-tense statement, avoiding 'I want' and 'my intention is to'.
Make art: usually 1.5 to 2.5 hours, with free choice of materials. Sometimes the facilitator offers a material or an image to respond to.
Witness writing: about 15 minutes of writing while looking at the finished piece. It need not be coherent, and the writer may ask the artwork questions.
Optional reading aloud, with no comment or dialogue from anyone. The facilitator also makes art and witnesses, and closes the session with their own witness writing.

B. CJEA intermodal sequence [source: CJEA summary]

The summary gives no fixed session template.
The examples follow this order: a creative prompt (drawing, scribble, collage or clay), then a written reflection on the image or the process, then optional movement or voice dialogue, then a closing written reflection.
It can be practised alone or with a facilitator, individually or in groups.

C. Ongoing personal practice [source: Malchiodi 2013 compilation; Urdang/GoodTherapy]

A short entry daily or at a regular time, dated, with a title or words.
Optional relaxation first, but not as a rigid ritual.
A periodic witness: a therapist, a group or an online community.
Mercer, Warson & Zhao (2010) piloted visual journaling with Eastern Virginia Medical School students and staff over two sessions, measured with the STAI-Y, PANAS-X, journal artwork and a questionnaire. Most participants' anxiety and negative affect fell, but the sample was too small for statistical significance [source: abstract on Warson's Academia page]. Urdang's summary says self-directed journaling works as well as prompted journaling, but the abstract does not mention that comparison [uncertain: full text].
Ganim & Fox structure their book as a six-week plan [source: Red Wheel/Weiser and 49th Shelf book pages]. The weekly contents are not verified here. The library catalogue gives only the format: Quest Books, Wheaton, Ill., 1999, xii + 161 pp., illustrated [uncertain: weekly plan not verified].

D. Suggested clinical course (in-session plus between-session journal) [synthesis]

Phase 1, orientation and safety (session 1). Agree the purpose. Agree privacy and storage: where the journal lives, and who may see it. Agree what the therapist will and won't do with the images (no interpretation imposed). Try one low-risk warm-up, such as a feelings scribble or doodle. Move on when the client can make marks without marked distress and agrees a storage plan.
Phase 2, building the practice (sessions 2–4). Brief entries in session (10–20 minutes) followed by written reflection. Agree a between-session rhythm, e.g. 5–10 minutes most days. Move on when the client is making entries independently and can write about an image rather than judge it.
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.
Phase 4, consolidation and ending. Review the journal together, at the client's choice. Make an independent-practice plan and decide what happens to the journal at ending.
Format: individual 50-minute sessions, or 90–150-minute groups modelled on the Open Studio Process.

3. Guiding principles

Privacy, confidentiality, freedom from judgment [source: CJEA summary]. Agree storage before any personal content is made. CJEA advises a place the journal-keeper controls, such as a locked cabinet or secure box.
Sharing is voluntary, and only with emotionally safe people [source: CJEA summary; Gapers Block]. Never require the client to show a page. Ask 'Would you like to share any of this?' and accept no.
No comment on others' work, positive or negative [source: Gapers Block, Open Studio Project]. Praise is a comment too. In groups, say nothing about other members' images. One-to-one, see the [synthesis] note below.
The maker holds authority over meaning [source: Open Studio no-comment rationale: it returns control to the creator]. Offer no interpretations. Ask the client what they see. [synthesis: in individual therapy, curious questions are acceptable; evaluative or interpretive statements are not.]
No art skill needed [source: CJEA summary, "If you can hold a crayon, you can do this work"; Ganim & Fox publisher page: stick figures and doodles suffice]. Offer crayons and stick figures as fully valid.
Image and words together [source: Malchiodi]. Follow an image with writing (or speech) about it. The image carries the felt sense; the words organise it.
Intention before making, witness after [source: Open Studio Process]. Frame each entry with a brief present-tense intention, and close it with witness writing.
Intermodal sequencing [source: CJEA summary]. Moving from drawing to writing to movement or voice can deepen or shift a stuck image.
Hand choice follows the purpose [source: CJEA summary]. Use the non-dominant hand for feelings, the inner child or intuitive content. In dialogues, the Core Self writes with the dominant hand.
Spontaneity over control [source: Malchiodi on spontaneous imagery and non-dominant hand]. Use scribble, doodle and the non-dominant hand to loosen judgment.
Process over product; mess is welcome [source: Gapers Block]. Don't tidy, correct or admire the product.
Date and title each entry [source: Malchiodi]. This builds a record the client can review over time.
Relaxation is optional, not a ritual [source: Malchiodi]. Offer a brief settling exercise, but don't make it a precondition.
A witness deepens the work [source: Malchiodi]. The therapist's role is a non-judging witness, not an art critic or diagnostician.
Not diagnostic [synthesis + Domain VIII rule]. No source supports reading journal images as evidence of abuse or disorder. Don't use journal pages as projective tests.
Theory claims are the authors' own [synthesis]. Ganim's 'left brain/right brain' rationale, and Capacchione's right-brain or 'whole-brain' account and her descriptions of the method as 'drugless' and 'prescriptive', are the authors' theories. Malchiodi herself reframes non-dominant-hand work as whole-brain loosening rather than a route to the 'right brain' [source: Malchiodi 2013]. Present these as models, not established neuroscience, and never as treatment for physical illness.

4. Intervention inventory

All example language is illustrative unless quoted. Section A covers the frame and core structure, B Capacchione's CJEA methods, C Malchiodi's and other published prompt types, and D the clinician's own reflective practice.

A1. Setting up the journal and storage plan

Purpose: create a safe container before any personal content is made [source: CJEA summary on privacy and secure storage; Malchiodi 'Safety first'].
Steps:
1. Choose a bound sketchbook, a loose-leaf folder (so pages can be removed), or an existing book for altered-book work.
2. Assemble a small kit: crayons or oil pastels, felt pens, a glue stick, magazines. A travel case lets the kit go with the client [source: Urdang].
3. Agree where the journal is kept: at home in a place the client controls, or in the therapy room, locked.
4. Agree who may see it. The default is no one unless the client invites them.
5. Agree what happens to pages made in session and to the journal at ending.
6. Agree whether you will photograph pages for the clinical record [synthesis: check your service's records policy, and remember that photographed pages may be disclosable].
Example language (illustrative): "This book is yours. Nothing in it has to be shown to me or anyone. Where at home could it live so that no one else picks it up?"
Watch for: household members who read diaries, or controlling or abusive partners. If storage at home isn't safe, keep the journal in the clinic or use removable pages [synthesis].

A2. Settling or relaxation before an entry

Purpose: lower arousal and shift attention inward. It is optional [source: Malchiodi 2013]. The Open Studio Process allows about 30 minutes of arriving and looking over materials in its long groups [source: Cancer Lifeline].
Steps: one to three minutes of slow breathing or quiet sitting, then look over and handle the materials. In a long group, let people browse the materials freely.
Example language (illustrative): "Take a minute to just look at the colours. Pick up whatever your hand goes to."
Watch for: clients for whom eyes-closed relaxation raises anxiety or dissociation. Offer eyes open and an external focus instead [synthesis].

A3. Intention statement

Purpose: orient the entry and make it the client's own [source: Open Studio Process via Gapers Block; Cancer Lifeline].
Steps:
1. Before making, the client writes one or two sentences about what they want from this piece of work.
2. Write it in the present tense, avoiding 'I want' and 'my intention is to'.
3. It can be simple ('I play with blue') or personal.
Example language (illustrative): "Write it as if it's already happening, for example 'I let my hand move without planning.'"
Watch for: intentions that set an outcome the client can fail at ('I make something beautiful'). Help them reword it towards process [synthesis].

A4. Art-making period

Purpose: the core activity of the session [source: Open Studio Process].
Steps:
1. Give free choice of materials, or offer one material or an image to respond to.
2. Let it run as long as the format allows: 10–20 minutes in individual therapy [synthesis], 1.5–2.5 hours in Open Studio groups.
3. The facilitator also makes art in the Open Studio model. One-to-one, decide whether making alongside the client helps or distracts [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "There's no right way. If you get stuck, change colour or change hand."
Watch for: self-criticism, freezing, or ripping up work. See Section 5.

A5. Witness writing

Purpose: turn the image into words and let it 'speak' [source: Open Studio Process via Gapers Block; Malchiodi on writing about images].
Steps:
1. Place the finished work where the maker can see it.
2. Write for about 15 minutes while looking at it. Full sentences and coherence are not required.
3. The writer may describe what they see, write what the image says, or ask it questions and write its answers.
4. Close by noting the date and a title [source: Malchiodi].
Example language (illustrative): "Just look and write whatever comes. You can ask the picture what it wants you to know."
Watch for: writing that criticises the art rather than witnessing it. Redirect to describing ('I see a red line crossing...').

A6. Reading aloud without comment (group or individual)

Purpose: be witnessed without being evaluated [source: Gapers Block; Cancer Lifeline].
Steps:
1. Each person may read some, all or none of their witness writing.
2. Listeners say nothing, neither praise nor critique, and the reader then moves on.
3. The facilitator reads their own witness writing at the end, in the Open Studio format.
Example language (illustrative): "We'll listen without responding. Afterwards, just say 'thank you' if you want." [synthesis: the 'thank you' convention is the writer's, not stated in the sources]
Watch for: group members who comment anyway. Restate the rule kindly at the moment it happens.

B1. Feelings scribble or drawing, then written observations (Creative Journal Method)

Purpose: identify, accept and process current feelings [source: CJEA summary].
Steps:
1. The client scribbles or draws how they feel, using colour, line and shape.
2. They then write what they notice about the artwork and about the process of making it.
Example language (illustrative): "Let the crayon show how today feels, then write what you notice, both in the picture and in how it felt to make."
Watch for: a shift in feeling between before and after. Ask for a 0–10 rating before and after if you want a simple marker [synthesis].

B2. Clay mood form, then movement, then closing writing

Purpose: intermodal processing of current mood [source: CJEA summary].
Steps:
1. Shape a small clay form of the current mood.
2. Interpret it in movement, e.g. take the form's shape with the hands or body.
3. Write a closing reflection.
Example language (illustrative): "Let your hands shape the mood. Now let your body take that shape for a moment. What do you notice?"
Watch for: space and falls during movement, and clay dust. Clients may decline movement; seated or hand-only versions are fine [synthesis].

B3. Non-dominant-hand drawing and writing

Purpose: access emotional and intuitive content and loosen control [source: CJEA summary; Maisel/Capacchione]. Malchiodi frames it as a whole-brain loosening activity and warm-up [source: Malchiodi 2013].
Steps:
1. Use a large crayon on large paper; Capacchione's own first experience was crayon on newsprint [source: Maisel/Capacchione].
2. Draw or print with the non-dominant hand. Capacchione's publishers describe this as writing with the nondominant hand "for brain balancing" and as a route to inner wisdom [source: Ohio University Press 35th-anniversary listing; Red Wheel page for The Power of Your Other Hand]. The exercises as printed in The Creative Journal and The Power of Your Other Hand are not drawn on [uncertain].
3. Expect slowness and awkwardness; that is part of it.
Example language (illustrative): "Switch to the hand you don't write with. It will be slow and messy, and that's the point."
Watch for: rapid emotional opening or age-regressed feelings. Have a grounding plan ready (Section 5). Clients with hand injury, tremor or pain should use another loosening method [synthesis].

B4. Bilateral (two-handed) drawing

Purpose: relax and integrate. Capacchione reports that scribbling with both hands calmed her [source: Maisel/Capacchione; CJEA summary].
Steps: draw with both hands at once, in one of three forms: symmetrical (both hands make the same shape), mirror (one hand mirrors the other), or contrast (each hand does something different) [source: CJEA summary for the three names; the descriptions are my paraphrase].
Example language (illustrative): "A crayon in each hand. Let them move together across the page."
Watch for: frustration with coordination. Make it playful and brief.

B5. Two-handed written dialogue

Purpose: dialogue between the Core Self (dominant hand) and another part or feeling (non-dominant hand) [source: CJEA summary].
Steps:
1. Name the other voice: a feeling, the inner child, a symptom, a body part, a future self.
2. The dominant hand asks a question and the non-dominant hand answers, alternating. Capacchione describes this as her own practice [source: Capacchione, SoulfulLiving essay].
3. The CJEA summary lists five core interview questions for the other voice: who it is, how it feels, why, what it needs from the Core Self, and what it has come to teach [source: CJEA summary, paraphrased].
4. Close with a dominant-hand reflection [source: Maisel/Capacchione account of her first dialogue].
Example language (illustrative): "With your usual hand ask, 'Who are you?' Then let the other hand answer, however slowly."
Watch for: critical or punishing answers. Switch to inner-critic work (B6) or to nurturing-parent work (B7).

B6. Inner critic dialogue

Purpose: identify and tame negative self-talk [source: CJEA summary; Maisel/Capacchione on self-judgment as the cause of creative blocks].
Steps:
1. Each voice writes with a different hand.
2. The CJEA summary assigns the non-dominant hand to the critic's responses so that the Core Self answers from the dominant hand [source: CJEA summary].
3. Hand assignment otherwise varies by application (Section 3).
Example language (illustrative): "Let the critic speak through your other hand. Then answer it as the adult you are."
Watch for: a critic that echoes an abuser's voice. Slow down, ground, and process it in the talking therapy rather than on the page alone [synthesis].

B7. Inner Child Reparenting sequence

Purpose: build nurturing and protective inner capacities [source: CJEA summary; Capacchione, Recovery of Your Inner Child (1991)].
Steps, as the CJEA summary lists them:
1. Identify the Inner Child through writing, drawing, sculpture, mask-making, movement and Voice Dialogue.
2. Develop a Nurturing Parent who listens to and cares for the child.
3. Strengthen a Protective Parent who sets boundaries and provides safety.
4. Identify and manage the Critical Parent's negative self-talk.
5. Write two-hand dialogues between the child and parent voices.
Example language (illustrative): "What does the little one need right now? Let the Nurturing Parent write back."
Watch for: clients with significant childhood trauma or dissociative features, for whom inner-child work can flood. Use it only within trauma-informed therapy with stabilisation in place [synthesis].

B8. Body map (Body-Mind Healing-Arts Method)

Purpose: locate where emotions are held in the body [source: CJEA summary].
Steps [the CJEA summary names the technique; the steps are synthesis]:
1. Draw a simple body outline, or use a gingerbread-figure outline.
2. Scan the body.
3. Colour or mark where each feeling sits.
4. Write about the map.
Example language (illustrative): "Where in your body is the worry today? Give it a colour and a place on the outline."
Watch for: body-focused shame, eating-disorder or trauma triggers. Offer an abstract alternative, such as a shape standing in for the body [synthesis].

B9. Body dialogue

Purpose: let the body or a symptom 'speak' [source: CJEA summary].
Steps: run a two-handed dialogue (B5) with a body part or symptom as the other voice.
Example language (illustrative): "Ask your shoulders what they're carrying."
Watch for: medical symptoms. The dialogue is an emotional exploration, not a diagnostic or treatment tool. Refer for medical assessment as usual [synthesis; Domain VIII rule].

B10. 'Dancing on paper' and spontaneous movement

Purpose: relax by combining music and art, and let music move through the body to release stress [source: CJEA summary].
Steps [the CJEA summary names the technique; the steps are synthesis]:
1. Play instrumental music at a moderate volume.
2. The client lets crayons move with the music on large paper.
3. Optionally, they stand and move.
4. Write a short reflection.
Example language (illustrative): "Let the crayons follow the music, like they're dancing."
Watch for: clear floor space, and keep the volume moderate.

B11. Mandala or circle work

Purpose: centring [source: CJEA summary], and a container for difficult feelings [source: Urdang].
Steps:
1. Trace or draw a circle on the page.
2. Fill the inside and/or the outside with images, lines, shapes and colours [source: Malchiodi 2013].
3. On a hard day, fill the circle and add words for the feeling. The page may be removed from the journal [source: Urdang].
Example language (illustrative): "Put the feeling inside the circle. You decide what stays in and what's outside."
Watch for: symbolic or spiritual readings of mandalas belong to particular traditions. Don't interpret colours or shapes for the client [synthesis; Domain VIII rule].

B12. Visual affirmation, or 'Picture of Health'

Purpose: create an image of the desired state of health [source: CJEA summary].
Steps: draw or collage oneself well and strong, then write a present-tense statement beside it [steps are synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Make a picture of you feeling at ease in your body."
Watch for: magical thinking about curing disease. Present it as support for coping and motivation, never as a substitute for medical treatment [synthesis; Domain VIII rule].

B13. Visioning sequence

Purpose: clarify goals and the 'heart's desire' [source: CJEA summary; Capacchione, Visioning (2000)].
Steps, as the CJEA summary lists them:
1. A focused meditation to identify a heart's desire.
2. A collage vision board.
3. Journaling about the images, voice dialogue, and movement to explore meaning.
4. A two-handed written dialogue with a 'future self', then embodying that future self in movement.
Example language (illustrative): "Choose images that pull at you, without explaining why yet."
Watch for: use it in goal-setting phases, not acute crisis. Keep it linked to realistic, value-based steps [synthesis].

C1. 'How do you feel today?' feelings journal

Purpose: a daily emotional check-in that builds self-awareness and self-regulation [source: Malchiodi 2013].
Steps: each day, draw the current feeling with colour, shape, line or image. Urdang's variant draws a symbol and adds one word [source: Urdang].
Example language (illustrative): "One small square a day: a colour or shape for how you are, plus one word."
Watch for: patterns over weeks. Let the client review the pages and name the patterns themselves.

C2. Spontaneous imagery from a scribble

Purpose: lower control and judgment [source: Malchiodi 2013].
Steps:
1. Make a free-form scribble.
2. Turn the page around and look for images in it.
3. Develop one image.
4. Write about it.
Example language (illustrative): "Scribble without looking, then turn it until something shows up."
Watch for: a client who 'can't see anything'. Accept that; describe the lines instead.

C3. Dream journal

Purpose: capture and work with dream material [source: Malchiodi 2013].
Steps:
1. On waking, write key words or phrases.
2. Draw the main elements of the dream.
3. In session, the client can witness-write or run a dialogue with a dream figure (B5) [synthesis combining sources].
Example language (illustrative): "Don't explain the dream. Just draw what was in it."
Watch for: nightmares in PTSD. Don't push detailed redrawing without a trauma-treatment rationale [synthesis].

C4. Photocollage journal

Purpose: an easy entry for 'non-artists', and theme work [source: Malchiodi 2013].
Steps:
1. Collect magazine images, words, quotes and memorabilia.
2. Glue them into a journal built around a theme.
Example language (illustrative): "Tear out anything that grabs you this week. We'll sort it later."
Watch for: magazine imagery around bodies and weight with eating-disorder clients. Curate the image stock [synthesis].

C5. Doodle diary

Purpose: reach a state of flow and self-regulate through repetitive pattern [source: Malchiodi 2013].
Steps: with fine felt pens, repeat lines and shapes until absorbed. Malchiodi mentions Zentangle-style patterns. Zentangle is a separately branded method [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Repeat one small shape across the page and notice your breathing."
Watch for: doodling used to avoid all reflection. Pair it with a brief written note.

C6. Intention journal

Purpose: reinforce commitment to one goal, such as gratitude or health behaviour [source: Malchiodi 2013].
Steps: dedicate a journal to one intention, and make a daily image plus words about it.
Example language (illustrative): "Each day, one picture of where you noticed the intention working."
Watch for: self-blame on 'missed' days. Treat gaps as information.

C7. Altered book

Purpose: re-author one's story through words and images, in the manner of narrative therapy. Malchiodi cites Harriet Wadeson's phrase, an altered book for an altered life [source: Malchiodi 2013].
Steps:
1. Choose an existing book (a novel, a cookbook, a children's book).
2. Highlight words to make found poetry.
3. Paint, draw or collage over the text and pictures.
Example language (illustrative): "Find words on this page that say something true for you, and cover the rest."
Watch for: books with personal or family meaning. Ask before altering them [synthesis].

C8. Symbol of the day

Purpose: brief daily processing [source: Urdang].
Steps: draw one symbol for the day and write one word.
Example language (illustrative): "If today were a shape, what would it be?"
Watch for: use it as the minimum-effort entry on low days.

C9. Tension and relaxation symbols

Purpose: link the body and stress reduction [source: Urdang].
Steps:
1. Draw a symbol of tension.
2. Tense and release each muscle group from the feet up to the head.
3. Draw a symbol of relaxation.
4. Compare the two.
Example language (illustrative): "Draw the tight feeling first. After the muscle exercise, draw how it feels now."
Watch for: pain conditions. Skip tensing any painful area [synthesis].

C10. Wellness circle

Purpose: plan balanced self-care [source: Urdang].
Steps:
1. Divide a circle into four sections: physical, emotional, spiritual and mental.
2. Draw and label activities in each section.
3. Share them with someone.
Example language (illustrative): "What feeds you in each quarter?"
Watch for: don't set exercise targets or prescribe specific activities [Domain VIII rule].

C11. Circle of family and friends

Purpose: map supportive relationships [source: Urdang].
Steps:
1. Place pictures or drawings of supportive people, past and present, around the circle, including oneself.
2. Tell a story about each person.
Example language (illustrative): "Who has been on your side, at any point in your life?"
Watch for: grief, estrangement or absence of support. Allow pets, groups, places or figures from books [synthesis].

C12. Favourite or safe place drawing

Purpose: build a resource image [source: Urdang, 'favourite place', shared with someone]. Using it as a grounding resource is [synthesis].
Steps: draw a favourite place with sensory detail, then share or write about it.
Example language (illustrative): "Draw a place where you feel at ease, real or imagined. What would you hear there?"
Watch for: clients with no safe place. Allow an imagined or partial place.

C13. Self-directed journaling

Purpose: free entries with no prompt. Urdang, citing Mercer et al. (2010), reports self-directed journaling as just as beneficial as prompted journaling. The paper's abstract does not report that comparison [uncertain: full text not verified].
Steps: the client makes an entry at a regular time with any media; the therapist offers prompts only when asked.
Example language (illustrative): "Use the book however you like this week."
Watch for: an empty journal. Move to a light prompt (C1 or C8).

D1. Visual journaling as the clinician's reflective practice

Purpose: process countertransference and reach implicit knowing [source: Malchiodi, Substack].
Steps [synthesis]: after a demanding session, make a quick image, write about it, and bring it to supervision if useful. Never include client-identifying details.
Watch for: confidentiality of the clinician's journal [synthesis].

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about problems. Apart from the tagged source points, this section is the writer's synthesis.

"I can't draw" or embarrassment.
- The sources answer this directly: stick figures, doodles and crayon work are enough [source: Ganim & Fox publisher page; CJEA summary].
- Start with collage (C4), scribble (C2) or a circle (B11), which need no drawing skill.
- Model a deliberately simple mark yourself.
- Example language (illustrative): "This isn't art class. A scribble counts."
Blank page or freezing.
- Shrink the task: one colour, one minute, one square.
- Switch hands (B3) or switch medium.
- Offer one material or an image to respond to, as Open Studio facilitators sometimes do [source: Cancer Lifeline].
Perfectionism, self-criticism, tearing up work.
- Name the inner critic and run B6 [source: CJEA summary].
- Restate that process matters more than product.
- Don't rescue the work with praise: praise is a comment too [source: Open Studio no-comment rule].
- If the client wants to destroy a page, let them choose: tear it out, fold it, or keep it closed in the clinic.
Resistance to sharing.
- Sharing is voluntary [source: CJEA summary; Open Studio Process].
- Work only with what the client chooses to say about the image. Treat privacy as part of the method, not as resistance.
Rupture from a therapist's comment or interpretation.
- Acknowledge it directly. Return authority over meaning to the client and reinstate the no-comment stance.
- Example language (illustrative): "I put my meaning on your picture, and that wasn't mine to do. What does it mean to you?"
Overwhelm, flooding, dissociation (especially with B3, B5–B7, B8, C3).
- Stop the activity and ground: name five things in the room, feet on the floor.
- Move the image out of view or close the book.
- Switch to a regulating task: doodle (C5), circle (B11), safe place (C12).
- For trauma clients, keep trauma-content entries in session until stabilisation is solid, with a containment ending each time, e.g. close the book and visualise it locked away.
- Don't assign trauma-memory drawing as homework.
Non-adherence between sessions.
- Lower the dose to 2–3 minutes, e.g. a symbol of the day (C8).
- Link it to an existing routine at a consistent time [source: Urdang, consistent time].
- Allow a phone photo or digital sketch app if a paper book feels unsafe or impractical.
- Explore what gets in the way without blame.
Privacy breach (a partner, parent or carer reads the journal).
- Treat it as a safety and trust issue.
- Review storage (A1), and consider keeping the journal at the clinic or using loose pages.
- Where coercive control is present, assess risk.
Self-harm or suicidal content appearing in a journal.
- Respond as to any disclosure: a calm, direct risk assessment in session using your service's standard approach, a safety plan, and lethal-means counselling (safe storage and removal) where indicated.
- Don't treat imagery alone as proof of risk or of safety; ask.
- Agree in advance whether you will look at between-session pages, and what you will do if you see risk content.
Over-interpretation, or using pages as evidence.
- Don't read journal images as signs of abuse, psychosis or diagnosis.
- No validated scoring system was found in the sources for journal art [uncertain].
- If a page prompts concern, ask open questions and follow standard assessment and safeguarding procedures.
Children and young people.
- Capacchione published child, teen and parent versions of the Creative Journal. The Creative Journal for Children: A Guide for Parents, Teachers, and Counselors (Shambhala, 1989) offers 72 exercises for children from kindergarten to junior high, written for parents, teachers and professionals in health care, psychotherapy and special education. The Creative Journal for Teens: Making Friends With Yourself appeared in a second edition in 2008 (New Page Books / Red Wheel/Weiser). The Creative Journal for Parents (Shambhala) adapts the method, including non-dominant-hand drawing and writing, to parents' own values and parenting style. [source: Shambhala and Red Wheel/Weiser book pages]
- Get assent from the child and consent from a parent or carer as your setting requires.
- Explain the limits of privacy at the start in age-appropriate words. You will keep the journal private unless you are worried about someone's safety.
- Follow mandatory reporting and safeguarding duties for disclosures made in images or words.
- Use chunky crayons and safety scissors, with supervision.
- Agree with parents that they won't read the journal, while keeping them informed about themes and safety.
Group difficulties.
- Members comment on others' work: restate the rule [source: Open Studio Process].
- Comparison and competition: no displays without consent.
- Someone becomes distressed: have a co-facilitator or a quiet corner, and check in individually before they leave.
- Close every group with a containment ritual, such as closing the books and a brief grounding.
Movement components (B2, B10, B13).
- Make them optional, offer seated versions, clear the floor, and avoid touch.
- If touch is ever used in a group, use explicit opt-in consent and an easy opt-out.
Spiritual or health claims.
- Clients may take visualisation or 'Picture of Health' work as a cure.
- Keep the work framed as support for coping. Encourage ongoing medical care.
- Attribute right-brain and whole-brain rationales to their authors [source: Malchiodi's reframing; Ganim's claims as described in Quest magazine article].
Ending.
- Plan what happens to the journal: the client keeps it, or it is destroyed or returned under the records policy.
- Plan a self-guided routine: daily C1 or C8 entries, monthly review.
- Offer community options: groups, open studios, online communities [source: Malchiodi].

Sources

Web sources:

Books and papers cited:

Allen, P. B. (1995). Art Is a Way of Knowing. Shambhala.
Capacchione, L. (2015). The Creative Journal: The Art of Finding Yourself (35th anniversary ed.). Swallow Press / Ohio University Press. Earlier citations date the first edition to 1979, but the publisher's listing says it was first released in 1980 [uncertain: first-edition year].
Capacchione, L. (1988; Red Wheel edition 2019). The Power of Your Other Hand: Unlock Creativity and Inner Wisdom Through the Right Side of Your Brain. Red Wheel.
Capacchione, L. (1989). The Creative Journal for Children: A Guide for Parents, Teachers, and Counselors. Shambhala.
Capacchione, L. (1991). Recovery of Your Inner Child.
Capacchione, L. (2nd ed. 2008). The Creative Journal for Teens: Making Friends With Yourself. New Page Books / Red Wheel/Weiser. First-edition year [uncertain].
Capacchione, L. (2000). Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams.
Ganim, B., & Fox, S. (1999). Visual Journaling: Going Deeper than Words. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books.
Mercer, A., Warson, E., & Zhao, J. (2010). Visual journaling: An intervention to influence stress, anxiety and affect levels in medical students. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 37, 143–148. doi:10.1016/j.aip.2009.12.003 [source: Frontiers in Psychology 2024 reference list; abstract on Warson's Academia page]

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