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Just a thought on this, but I have come to realise that part of the reason journalling doesn’t work as we’d hope is often because we’re either a) journalling about the wrong things or b) journalling without the necessary resources to hold the emotions we’re releasing with safety. I think this is where working with a therapist is so helpful. I have a lot of trauma to work through and for some of it, I have worked through it enough to be able to feel genuine release and relief through processing and feeling it. The emotions feel positive, even when I’m feeling pain. Like feeling that pain is lifting a weight. This is when I know it is working. However with other things, or indeed on other days when my body is craving rest or just not with it, I either can’t get to emotions at all or I feel a lot of emotion but I can’t process it by holding it objectively and with clarity, it’s like I’m still stuck in that emotion, reliving it. On these days, I just feel sad or angry or whatever and it sticks. I know when this happens that I haven’t fully processed or resolved that thing. Whereas on the days where I feel release, afterwards I feel totally liberated. For me this is the key - to release the emotions through journaling, it has to be release, as opposed to reliving or dwelling. Now part of the process to get to release includes exploring what’s there and working through the barriers to acceptance and release, and so everyday can’t be a release in itself, and part of that exploration means digging up some of that old stuff and feeling things about it as you go. But it has to feel productive and lead to a release eventually. When it isn’t, it’s usually best to either take a break, change topic or work with a therapist who can help you get to new ground. A way to approach this is as follows:
- pick a topic to journal about
- journal on it daily to explore the topic and try and get to a place of acceptance/compassion around this topic/feeling/experience. To do this, you need to work through all the feelings you have towards it/around it and behaviours etc that come up because of it and make peace with them all.
- once you can truly hold the thing with compassion and clarity, you will feel a release of it via emotion/bodily sensation
- move forward with peace and a promise to yourself to take the learning forward and integrate the healing
- move onto a new topic

This is essentially the basis of IFS as well if you have heard of that. IFS does work, but only if you can get past the protectors by meeting them with compassion to let the exile parts speak and be set free. This is why it can take some time and these protectors are often where people get stuck.