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, and experiences as they occur. Over time, this practice can reveal patterns in your thinking, emotional responses, and perceptions.

Visual journaling can also provide a safe container to express yourself.

Journals, altered books, and even decorated boxes can symbolically hold difficult feelings. When emotions feel overwhelming, placing them into a journal entry can be a way to express them and then set them aside until you are ready to explore them more deeply with your counselor. Simply closing the journal, wrapping a string around it, using a clasp or locking tab, or placing it in a simple or decorated box can create a meaningful sense of closure—allowing the journal to hold your experience until the next therapy session.

There Is No “Right Way” to Keep a Visual Journal

One of the most important things to remember is that there is no correct way to create a visual journal. You do not need to be “good at art.”

Each person develops their own method of expressing themselves. Your journal is perfect when it reflects your authentic experience. The goal is not artistic skill—it is honest, genuine expression.

Your journal might include: drawings, symbols, words or phrases, collage, simple marks, lines, or shapes. Whatever form it takes, your journal is a reflection of your inner experience.

Choosing a Journal

To get started, you only need a few simple materials.

I recommend choosing a small unlined journal, especially when you are beginning. A journal around 5.5" x 8" is a comfortable size to carry and use regularly. These can be found at most craft stores or bookstores and are often inexpensive. Journals come in many styles: spiral bound, soft cover, or hard bound.

Another inexpensive option is to purchase a used hard-cover book from a thrift store or library book sale, where they are often available for $1–$1.50. By gluing three pages together, you create a stronger surface that can be altered using drawing, painting, or collage to express your experience. Many people enjoy the process of transforming an existing book into a personal journal that holds their thoughts, emotions, and reflections. This process is referred to as an altered book.

Presently, my personal preference is a hard-bound, unlined 5.5" x 8" journal that costs less than $10. However, I began with creating altered books and continue to use them throughout my healing journey.

When creating entries, be sure to date each journal entry. Dating your entries helps you track patterns over time and allows you and your counselor to better understand when certain experiences or emotional responses occurred.

Simple Art Supplies

You do not need elaborate art materials. Starting simple often helps people feel less intimidated. You might begin with: pencils, colored pencils, crayons, markers, or collage materials (magazines, glue sticks, and scissors). Over time, you will likely discover what materials feel most natural for you.

My own preference is very simple: a graphite pencil, waterproof black artist pens, and watercolors.

This combination allows me to work quickly and focus on expression rather than details. The goal is to get the feelings, thoughts, and body sensations down and not overthink it. It may look like kindergarten drawings—and that is perfectly okay.

Visual Journal Prompts to Use Between Therapy Sessions

Visual journaling between therapy sessions can be guided by a few simple reflective prompts. You may choose to draw, write, or use collage to express your experience. If using collage, simply flip through a magazine or printed materials and cut out images, colors, or words that feel connected to your experience, body sensations, emotions, or the situation you are reflecting on.

What activated me? What situation occurred that caused your emotions or thoughts to suddenly shift? An activation might be something outside your control that caused your reactions to feel like they went “off the rails.”

Write it down. Create an image or collage to represent what activated you.

Identifying these moments can help reveal patterns in how you respond to situations.

Where do I feel it in my body? Imagine gently exploring your body from the inside, noticing where sensations appear. Where do you feel heaviness, tension, warmth, or movement in your body? Where in your body do you feel the sensation? Do you feel hurt, heaviness, or maybe something bubbly? Examples might include: hollow chest, heavy heart, pain between your shoulders, or a bubbly sensation in your arms. This question helps increase awareness of how you are experiencing your life in your body.

Draw a simple body outline in your journal and, using line, shape, color, or form, express the sensations you notice in different areas of your body.

We often believe our experiences begin with thoughts in our head, but our body frequently reacts first. The brain interprets those signals, and emotions follow.

This awareness is especially important when working through trauma. Our bodies can store memories and respond to perceived danger before we consciously understand what is happening.

If you would like to explore this concept further, I recommend reading The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk.

What emotions are attached? Emotions are usually single words, such as: sad, angry, lonely, disappointed, or afraid. They are not sentences like “I cannot believe they did that.” That is a thought, not an emotion. Thoughts and emotions are often mixed together when we describe our experiences. Separating them can help clarify what you are actually feeling.

Create art to represent that emotion - draw, paint or collage.

Discovering Patterns

Even making a few entries per week can begin to reveal patterns over time.

You may start to notice: recurring triggers, repeated emotional responses, common body sensations, shifts in how you interpret situations, etc.

These patterns can become valuable material to explore during therapy sessions.

You Are the Expert of Your Journal

One of the most important principles in visual journaling is this: You are the expert of your own journal. No one else can interpret your drawings or images for you. The meaning belongs to you.

Because journals often contain our deepest experiences, I generally recommend not sharing them with family or friends. Even well-meaning people may unintentionally dismiss or minimize what you are feeling. You may have heard responses like: “It could be worse”, “That happened a long time ago”, “You just need to love yourself”. Comments like these can feel invalidating and may discourage deeper reflection.

Your experiences are real and valid. Your journal is a place where those experiences can exist without judgment.

A Tool for Self-Discovery

Visual journaling is not about making art for others to see. It is about creating a private space where your inner experiences can be expressed honestly. Over time, this practice may help you: increase emotional awareness, understand patterns in your reactions, connect body sensations with emotional experience, and bring meaningful reflections into therapy. Most importantly, it creates an ongoing conversation with yourself—a space for curiosity, compassion, and self-discovery.

Exploring Visual Journaling in Therapy

Visual journaling can be a meaningful way to deepen self-awareness between counseling sessions and bring richer insight into the therapeutic process. For some people, drawing or creating images allows access to experiences that can be difficult to put into words.

Your journal can become a valuable companion to therapy. You might choose to bring entries to session and explore them with your counselor. Not all therapists are trained to work with visual journals, but many are open to discussing them as part of the therapeutic process.

If you are curious about incorporating visual journaling into your therapy work, you may benefit from working with a Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC) or Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT) who is trained in using creative processes within counseling.

In my practice at CREATE Therapy, I often integrate visual journaling and other expressive arts approaches to support clients in exploring emotions, body awareness, and personal patterns in a safe and supportive way. Clients are always welcome to bring journal entries into session if they would like help reflecting on what emerges through their creative process.

Keeping a visual journal between therapy sessions can become a powerful tool for reflection, emotional awareness, and deeper therapeutic work.