Visual Journaling, Art Therapy & Expressive Arts Blog

Finding Your Voice One Page at a Time

This space is personal. It comes from my own experience of sitting with a journal, trying to make sense of thoughts that won’t settle and feelings that don’t always have words. I’m not just teaching this work—I’m living it. I use visual journaling and creative expression in my own life as a way to understand myself, work through the bumps and bruises that come with being human, and find new ways of relating to my thoughts, emotions, and the people around me.

As a Licensed Professional Counselor–Supervisor (LPC-S), Board-Certified Art Therapist, and Registered Expressive Arts Therapist based in Fort Worth and working with clients across Texas, I’ve seen how powerful this process can be—not just in therapy, but in everyday life.

Sometimes our thoughts are on repeat—like a broken record. Maybe you’ve tried journaling, only to find it amplifies the same negative thoughts already circling in your mind. It can begin to feel like you’re a hamster on a wheel, running and running in endless circles.

By bringing in visuals—drawing, painting, or collaging images, shapes, forms, lines, and colors—you begin to open the door to a new perspective. This allows another part of you to speak—your intuition, your inner voice, your deeper sense of knowing. As the mind begins to quiet and you slow down into the present moment, something shifts. You begin to feel more present in your body. Your own guidance has space to rise and be heard.

This blog isn’t about doing anything “right.” It’s an invitation to explore, to be curious, and to let your experience take shape in whatever way it needs to. Whether through words, images, or a mix of both, the process itself can open the door to insight, awareness, and a more compassionate connection with yourself.

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Deepening Your Visual Journaling Practice: Using Movement, Sound, and Other Expressive Arts Modalities

Visual journaling is a powerful way to explore your inner world—your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and body sensations. This practice can be especially meaningful when you begin deepening your visual journaling practice through additional forms of expression. This is often referred to as intermodal — moving from one form of expressive arts into another. What Other Modalities Can You Add to Visual Journaling? In addition to visual art, you might explore: Movement or dance Sou

lzstarnes

Mar 233 min read

How Keeping a Visual Journal Between Therapy Sessions Can Support Healing

Many people arrive to therapy sessions realizing they have forgotten much of what happened during the week. When life is busy, it is easy to only remember what occurred in the day or two before the appointment. Important thoughts, emotional reactions, and experiences that happened earlier in the week may be lost. Keeping a visual journal between therapy sessions can be a powerful way to capture those moments. A journal creates a space where you can express thoughts, feelings

lzstarnes

Mar 146 min read

Letting the Image Speak: Witnessing Your Art

In visual journaling, there is a subtle but powerful shift that can happen when we stop explaining our art. This practice—often described as letting your image speak—invites a deeper way of listening to your art, in other words "witnessing". Witnessing your art means allowing what you’ve created—an image, a collage, a mark on the page—to speak to you rather than about you. Instead of analyzing, fixing, or judging what you made, you pause and listen. You notice. You stay cur

lzstarnes

Dec 28, 20253 min read

cut paper, cut magazine, words, phrases, messy

Finding Creativity in the Mess

A messy art table isn’t just clutter—it’s a playground for creativity, self-discovery, and healing. Surrounded by torn magazines, brushes, and scraps of paper, I find treasures that spark insight and expression. In expressive arts therapy and visual journaling, allowing the process to get messy invites relaxation, freedom, and unexpected moments of meaning.

lzstarnes

Sep 9, 20252 min read