Sunday 26th January 2025

Happy Sunday!

How has January been for you so far? I feel like nature has featured prominently, with storms, fires, snow and frost. We had yet another power cut happen just as I was writing this newsletter today! Thankfully these have been temporary ones. We have had no other destruction here, and every day we have an extra 3 minutes of light as the sun sets a little later in the afternoon at the moment. Is the weather featuring in your reflections this week?

Reflections on writing

I have been thinking a lot about the differences between journaling to offload and journaling with added reflection. In the weekly process writing that I do, I add a second writing session after the initial free-write session. The reason I do this is because of the therapeutic benefits of going back over what I have written, to reflect and process on what came up. In today's newsletter I wanted to say a bit more about this. Thank you to those of you who asked me about this distinction.

Free writing Versus Therapeutic Writing

Free writing is what Julia Cameron uses in her ‘Morning Pages’ technique. This is where you write about anything that comes to mind and you then follow that stream of consciousness.

So you are not necessarily focused on exploring specific thoughts and feelings, just writing with whatever comes to mind.

This can be an approach that you could use in general journaling. It can be a great way of offloading, of seeing our thoughts in black and white, and of getting to know how we feel about something. This is why journaling can feel like an important tool in self-awareness.

But, we can take this further. Imagine in the first 'offload' session you start writing about an event from the past week where something niggled you but you were not sure why. As you write you connect with a memory from your past. Perhaps a person who upset you and you could not do anything about it at the time, but you did not know why. You may not have ever written about this event before.

In a free-write, you might write about this but then perhaps go off onto another topic. It might be that you notice feelings coming up but are not sure where to go with them.You might leave the writing there, and may even feel a little apprehensive about touching upon this event again.

If you were to do a deliberate 'processing' session where you reflected on your feelings and thoughts about this event. You might start to notice feelings and thoughts that you are having right now, in the present, as you write. This can be scary, but it is a very important part of processing. If you can let yourself have these feelings and thoughts - without judgment - you will notice that they come and go, as you start to have thoughts about the thoughts and feelings and about how you feel now versus how you felt back then. 

You 'process' and you move forward into re-evaluating and seeing a situation from a new perspective. The perspective of who you are and where you are right now.

I don't keep transcripts from my client sessions, but in the book 'Therapeutic Journal Writing' by Kate Thompson, Thompson offers a reflection from a client which I feel gives an insight into this process. It shows how, as we reflect back from the current present, we notice our feelings, honour them, and start to see an event from our current moment perspective, with compassion and curiosity:

"I am surprised to find that I am getting upset now. I can feel tears welling up and a tightness in my chest; I feel so sorry for the little girl in this piece sent to her room banished from the family - and she didn't even really know what she had done wrong and she was frightened and confused. I want to try and explain things to her - that it wasn't something so terrible." (p.36 Thompson, 2011).

It is in this reflection, or 'feedback loop' (Thompson, 2011) that we can start to move forward with our journaling. 

You could make this reflection a part of your free-write if you wanted to. Just pause to reflect back on what you have written in the session, notice thoughts and feelings that come up for you, acknowledge and honour them with compassion and curiosity, and this will help you to process and move forward into seeing from a new perspective.

In my weekly process writing session today I am going to be offloading the working week and reflecting on some unfinished work. What will you be reflecting on today?

For now, have a great rest of the weekend and I hope that you go into Monday feeling rested and clear of intention.

Until next Sunday,

Donna

Structured Therapeutic Expressive Writing: An online, self-paced course

This course combines the transformative practice of free-writing, with the structure of therapeutic expressive writing.

I have also added CBT strategies for managing thoughts and feelings and therapeutic sound for processing. It is  designed to help you not only offload/journal your thoughts and feelings, but reflect, process and manage the feelings that come up for you whilst writing. 

Contents:

- 29 videos with over 5 hours of content

- A detailed 50-page course workbook

- Resources and handouts

- A carefully curated therapeutic music playlist

You can buy the course outright, or pay £7 a month to access it and then cancel this subscription anytime.

One-time: Price: £54.99

Monthly: £7

Here's the link for more details about the course.

Books

Thompson, K. (2011). 

Therapeutic Journal Writing: An Introduction for Professionals. 

Kindle Edition.

How to do a 'Weekly Process' in writing

Set yourself a timer for 7 minutes to free write/offload all of your thoughts. Then set the timer for another 7 minutes and focus down, notice any moments where you felt awe in your lifetime. What things could you bring into your life now to bring moments of awe and wonder. Set intentions and any actions that you want to take over the next week.

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