Reflective Journaling

* for Self-Awareness and Personal

Development in Counsellor Training
Emma Chapman
* Learning Outcomes
Aim: To understand how to keep an effective reflective journal and
why this is important for personal development in counsellor training.
Objectives:
üDescribe what reflective journaling is.
üRecognise the importance of reflective journaling for self-awareness
and personal development.
üExplore different techniques that will enable effective and useful
reflective journaling.
üIdentify how you might use your journal to apply theory to self for
your personal development assignments.
* What is a Reflective Journal?
It is a place to express and explore your thoughts and
feelings openly and honestly.
It is usually written down in a book, or journal, but
it can be an audio or video recording if this better suits
your needs and style.
On most courses it doesn’t have to be submitted
(it’s worth checking with your course), but its content
can be used to help you in your personal development
assignments. It’s written by you, for you.
You might want to share quotes from it in your personal
development assignments or simply use it as a tool
to track your development.
* Why do so many of us find
Reflective Journaling so daunting?
§ I’m not good at writing or spelling.
§ I’ve never written or spoken to myself and it
feels awkward.
§ I’m worried it will be seen by others.
§ I think it might leave me feeling emotionally
exposed.
§ I don’t understand the point of it.
§ I don’t know how to get started.
§ I don’t know what to write/talk about.
?
“I don’t understand
the point of it”
Why is Personal Development
through Self-Awareness
Essential for Counsellors?
ü Self-Awareness is needed to reach Self-
Acceptance and move towards Self-
Actualisation (Stages 6 and 7 of
Therapeutic Growth – Rogers).
ü We need to learn to ‘Trust the Process’.
ü We are the ‘tool’ used in counselling –
therefore we need to ensure the tool is
healthy and safe to use.
ü We need to learn how to consciously
‘Bracket’ our own issues in order to stay
in our client’s frame of reference.
ü Essential part of any counselling training
– how do we evidence it in assignments?
One way is through a Reflective Journal.
?
“I don’t know how
to get started”
Things to Consider
Before You Begin
Your Reflective Journal
ü In what format will you do your ü How often will you do your
journaling? journal?
ü Where will you do the journal? ü Where will you keep your
ü When will you do the journal journal?
?
“I don’t know what
to write/talk about”
Some Ideas to Get You Started
* 1. Reflect on your current state…
How are you feeling? Are you calm? If not, what are you feeling?
Do you have any worries about journaling? If so, write about them.
You might be worried about getting it wrong. If so, say that.
You might find it hard to access your feelings right now. You might
not know how you are feeling. If you don’t, you can write that down.
Example:
This all feels very strange. I’ve never written about my
feelings before. I’m nervous I’m going to get it wrong. I find
it difficult to talk about my feelings, I’m not sure why…
* 2. Write about something that has upset you or
made you feel strong emotions in the past week.
Did something happen at college/university? Has something happened
at home?
If nothing comes to mind, think about the day you’ve just had. It doesn’t
matter how small or irrational it seems—if it made you feel sad, happy,
uncomfortable, anxious, angry, you can explore it.
Describe how you felt and how you reacted. Explore why you think you felt
and behaved that way. Did it remind you of something or somebody?
You might not know why you reacted that way. Don’t worry—just say that.
* 2. Write about something that has upset you or
made you feel strong emotions in the past week.
Example:
Today during my personal development group **** told me
that they felt intimidated by me because I have an opinion
about everything. I was furious. How dare she assume that
I’m going to judge her? I’m normally really quite quiet in
this group and I try hard to keep my opinions to myself.

Thinking about it, my Dad always told me I was a ‘know-

it-all’. I wonder if that has anything to do with why it
made me so angry?
* 3. Write about memories.
We usually remember things that are important to us. Sometimes they are just
snippets of memories, other times it’s more.
Describe where you are and who is there. How old are you? How do you feel?
Why do you feel this way?
Why do you think you remember it so clearly? Be careful not to re-traumatise
yourself, if the memory is particularly painful perhaps save it for therapy.
Example:
I remember being at the beach, I’d lost a purse that my
Grannie had given to me. I was crying and a lady came to see
if I was ok. I felt scared that my Dad would shout at me, he
had quite a temper back then…
* 4. Explore your beliefs and values
Write or talk about what is important to you and why.
Do you have any religious beliefs? Do you have any values that might be
worth exploring?
Example:
I was talking to a friend the other day about his little lad,
he’d been bought a doll. I didn’t think I’d be so bothered
about it but I can’t understand why a boy would want to
play with a doll? I’ve always believed that boys should be a
bit more rough and tumble. It’s got me wondering why I
think this way. Where has it come from…?
* 5. Write about your hopes, dreams and goals.
Where do you want to be in 6 months, a year, 2 years, 10 years?
Why do you want to be there? How will you get there? Is there anything
stopping you from getting there?
Example:
In 3 years time, I want to be a counsellor. I want to work in
private practice so that I don’t have a boss telling me what
to do. I’m not good at taking orders from people—I like to
do things my own way. I’m worried that I won’t get through
this course though. I’m struggling to stay on task because I’m
losing confidence after failing my last assignment…
* 6. Write about your fears and worries.
What are you fearful of and why? Do you worry about things? If so,
what do you worry about? Are your fears and worries rational or irrational?
Where might they come from?

Example:
I’m worried about being a rubbish Dad. Whenever the kids
annoy me, I snap at them and I hate myself. What if I just
lose it and leave and never come back? I spend so much time
worrying and examining all of my behaviour to make sure
that I’m being a good Dad. Sometimes it feels rational, but
then people around me say I’m lovely with the kids. I wonder
if it’s related to my upbringing. My Dad left when I was 10…?
* 7. Go to previous journal entries & reflect on them.
Sometimes with a bit of distance we can see things more clearly. Hopefully
while on the course your self-awareness will also be developing, so it can be
useful to revisit old entries and reflect on them.
Example:
I went back and looked at my very first entry in my journal.
It was weird to see how scared and nervous I was. I realise
now that I was terrified of being judged by everybody around
me. I hate looking stupid in front of people. Other people’s
opinion of me has always been more important to me than
anything else. It’s stopped me from doing a lot of things…
?
“I don’t understand
the point of it”
How Can You Use Your Reflective
Journal in Your Personal
Development Assignments?
When it comes time to do your PD assignments, you can
go back and look through your journal to see what you’ve
discovered about yourself.
You can then start to apply some of the theory that
you’ve learnt to your journal entries by asking yourself
questions like:

ü What stage was I at using Roger’s 7 stages of

therapeutic process at this point?
ü Did I have an external or internal locus of evaluation?
ü Was I able to offer myself the core conditions?
ü How would I describe my self-concept at this point?
ü What are my conditions of worth and/or introjected
values?
ü Was I experiencing transference?
ü Was I stuck in a pattern automatic negative thoughts?

You can compare these answers to how you feel now.

Is this evidenced in your more recent entries?
Example:
“Today during my personal development group **** told me
that they felt intimidated by me because I have an opinion
about everything. I was furious. How dare she assume that I’m
going to judge her? I’m normally really quite quiet in this
group and I try hard to keep my opinions to myself. Thinking
about it, my Dad always told me I was a ‘know-it-all’. I
wonder if that has anything to do with why it made me so
angry?”
When I look at the above quote from my journal, I realise that I had an
external locus of evaluation. What other people said or thought about me
mattered so much at this time. Noticing this about myself has made me
question why?
I realise now that my Dad was always so critical of me and I think that I
was experiencing transference here–I was hearing my dad all over again.
I had developed some conditions of worth from childhood because of
this; that it was best to keep my opinions to myself.
So I was really upset when she said that I was opinionated. This sent me
into a spiral of negative automatic thoughts where I assumed that
everybody hated me. I wasn’t able to offer myself empathy or
unconditional positive regard at this point. I just judged myself.
* The value of reflective
journaling
ü A lot of counsellors keep journals once
they have trained.
ü I find that it keeps me grounded and
helps me to stay aware of the things that
bother me.
ü For me it acts as an ‘Internal
Supervisor’, a safe place to explore my
own thoughts and feelings.
ü It’s another way that I can ensure that I
can work ethically and safely with my
clients and continue my personal
development.
* References and Further Reading
Cairns, F. (1996). Transference and Counter-transference in S, Palmer.,
P, Milner & S, Dainow. (Ed), Counselling: The BACP Counselling Reader.
(p.492-499). London: Sage.
Cooper, J. (2013). Keeping a Journal: A path to uncovering your identity
and keeping your sanity. Educational Perspectives. 46(1&2), p.40-44.
Johns, H. (2009). Personal Development in Counsellor Training. London:
Sage
Mearns, D., Thorne, B. (2013). Person-Centred Counselling in Action.
(4th ed.). London: Sage.
Rogers, C. (1961). On becoming a Person. London: Constable.