How Journaling Can Support Therapy Between Sessions

Therapy doesn't happen in isolation from everyday life.

You might leave an appointment with a new perspective, a question to consider or something you want to pay closer attention to. Then the rest of the week happens. There are responsibilities to manage, conversations to have and ordinary moments that bring new thoughts and feelings to the surface.

Journaling creates an opportunity to notice and capture some of those experiences before they fade into the background.

The American Psychological Association's guide to psychotherapy describes how therapists may encourage clients to observe their reactions, practice new skills or complete other activities between sessions, depending on the therapeutic approach.

A journal can be one way to support that kind of reflection. It might help someone remember an important moment, explore a question from their last appointment or prepare something they'd like to discuss next time.

It doesn't need to be complicated. A few sentences about what happened, how you felt and what you're wondering can be a useful place to begin.

There are several practical ways journaling may complement therapy. The most useful approach will depend on the person, their goals and the work they're doing with their therapist.

1. Capture thoughts and feelings while they're fresh

Sometimes, something important happens days before your next appointment.

You notice yourself responding differently to a familiar situation, a conversation brings up a strong feeling, or you remember something you wanted to ask your therapist.

Writing it down can help you preserve the moment without needing to fully understand it right away.

You might record what happened, what you noticed and whether there's anything you'd like to revisit. When your next appointment comes around, you have a starting point for the conversation rather than having to reconstruct the experience from memory.

2. Notice patterns in everyday life

A single journal entry captures a moment; several entries may help you notice something that keeps coming up.

Perhaps certain situations leave you feeling overwhelmed, maybe a familiar thought appears whenever you're facing a difficult decision, or you begin to recognize moments when you respond differently than you would have a few months ago.

Journaling for self-awareness can create a record of those experiences.

That doesn't mean every recurring feeling needs to be interpreted or analyzed. Sometimes, simply noticing something is enough to bring a useful question into your next therapy session.

3. Continue reflecting on what came up in therapy

An appointment can leave you with a lot to think about.

You might want to explore a question your therapist asked, put a new perspective into your own words or reflect on how a conversation relates to something happening in your life.

A therapy journal can give those thoughts a place to develop between appointments.

Research on between-session activities offers some context for this approach. A 2023 systematic review of homework in psychotherapy found that collaboratively designing activities around clients' goals and reviewing them together may help encourage engagement.

The review examined between-session homework broadly, rather than journaling specifically. Still, it reinforces an important principle: activities between appointments should be relevant to the individual and connected to the work they're doing in therapy.

4. Prepare for your next appointment

It's not always easy to know where to begin when you sit down with your therapist.

You may have several things on your mind, or you might find that something which felt important during the week is suddenly difficult to explain.

A journal can help you collect questions, observations and experiences you'd like to bring into the room.

You don't need to arrive with a complete account of your week. Even a short list of things you'd like to revisit can help you decide where to start.

And if you don't feel comfortable sharing what you've written, you don't have to — your journal can be a private place to organize your thoughts before deciding what you'd like to discuss.

Research suggests that writing and other between-session activities can play a supporting role in mental health care, although the evidence varies depending on the intervention and the outcomes being studied.

A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis of journaling interventions examined 20 randomized controlled trials and found that journaling was associated with modest improvements in mental health measures compared with control groups. The researchers also noted substantial differences between studies and methodological limitations, making it difficult to draw broad conclusions about which approaches work best for whom.

Research on psychotherapy homework offers another perspective. A meta-analysis of homework completion and therapy outcomes found a positive association between completing between-session assignments and treatment outcomes across the studies examined. However, this research covered different types of homework, not journaling alone, and an association does not establish that journaling itself caused better outcomes.

Together, these findings support a measured conclusion: journaling may be a useful complement to therapy, particularly when the approach is appropriate for the person and connected to their therapeutic goals.

They do not establish that every form of journaling improves therapy outcomes or that a journaling app can reproduce the benefits of working with a mental health professional.

For a closer look at the evidence behind writing and mental wellbeing, read our companion article, Does Journaling Help Mental Health? What the Research Says.

If you're interested in journaling for therapy, you don't need an elaborate routine or a perfectly organized notebook.

A few simple choices can help make the practice feel manageable.

Start with what feels relevant. You might write about something that happened during the week, a thought you want to remember or a question that came up during your last appointment.

Keep it brief. Give yourself five or ten minutes, or write just a few sentences. You don't need to fill a page to make room for reflection.

Use a prompt when you want direction. A question can make it easier to begin, especially when you're not sure what you want to write about.

Let your writing be unfinished. Your journal doesn't need perfect grammar, a clear structure or a meaningful conclusion. It's a place to explore your thoughts, not produce a polished piece of writing.

Talk to your therapist about what feels appropriate. If you're considering journaling as part of your therapeutic work, you can discuss what you'd like to focus on, whether particular topics might be better explored together and how you might use your entries in future sessions.

Most importantly, pay attention to how the experience feels. Journaling should be a resource you can use when it's helpful, not another obligation to manage.

Not sure where to begin? These journal prompts for therapy offer a few approachable ways to reflect on what happens between appointments.

After a therapy session

• What is one thing from today's conversation I'd like to remember?
• Is there a question or idea I want to spend more time with?
• What would I like to revisit at my next appointment?

During the week

• What has been taking up space in my mind today?
• Did anything happen that brought up a familiar feeling or reaction?
• Is there something I'd like to put into words while it's still fresh?

Before your next appointment

• What feels important to talk about this week?
• Have I noticed anything I'd like to understand better?
• Is there a question I want to ask my therapist?

You don't need to answer every question or work through them in order. Choose one that feels useful, or use it as a starting point for a thought of your own.

And if a prompt doesn't feel right for you, it's okay to leave it unanswered.

Journaling isn't the right tool for every person, every moment or every therapeutic goal.

Writing about difficult experiences can sometimes bring up uncomfortable feelings. For some people, repeatedly revisiting distressing thoughts may also feel overwhelming rather than helpful.

Research on expressive writing has produced mixed findings. For example, a 2009 meta-analysis of writing about stressful or traumatic experiences found no significant overall benefit across the psychological and physical health outcomes examined.

That doesn't mean writing about difficult experiences is always unhelpful. It means we shouldn't assume that more writing, or more emotionally intense writing, will necessarily produce better results.

If journaling is making you feel significantly worse, it's okay to stop, choose a different topic or discuss the experience with your therapist.

You can also decide that certain experiences are better explored during appointments, with professional support, rather than through independent writing.

Importantly, journaling is not a replacement for therapy, medical care or crisis support. A journal can help you capture and explore thoughts, but it cannot provide clinical assessment, respond to an emergency or replace the relationship and expertise of a qualified mental health professional.

For practitioners, the most useful journaling practice is often one that feels relevant, manageable and appropriate for the individual client.

That might mean suggesting a brief reflection after an appointment, offering a question to revisit during the week or inviting a client to capture something they want to discuss next time.

A systematic review of clients' experiences between psychotherapy sessions describes how people may continue processing therapy both through planned activities and through spontaneous thoughts and experiences outside the therapy room.

Journaling can offer a place to capture some of those moments without requiring clients to turn every experience into a formal assignment.

When introducing journaling, practitioners can consider the client's preferences, capacity, privacy needs and therapeutic goals. It may also help to clarify whether the journal is intended to remain entirely personal or whether the client would like to bring selected reflections into future conversations.

The aim isn't to create another task that every client is expected to complete. It's to offer a resource that fits the work you're already doing together.

For more information about introducing Writeway as an optional between-session resource, explore our Writeway Referral Program.

Some days, you might want to work through a feeling. Other days, you might want to remember a question, make a list or capture a thought before it disappears.

Your journal should be able to make room for all of it.

Writeway is a digital journaling app that brings guided journals, thoughtful prompts and open pages together in one personal space. It gives you different ways to begin, depending on what's on your mind.

Rather than asking you to maintain a perfect daily routine, Writeway offers individual pages that give each writing session a clear place to focus and a natural point to stop.

You can explore our Features to find a journaling format that feels right for you, learn more about our approach to journaling, or download Writeway to start your first journal for free.

Whether you write regularly, occasionally or only when something feels important, there's room to find your own rhythm.

Journaling between therapy sessions doesn't have to mean doing more work on yourself.

Sometimes, it means noticing a thought before it slips away. Remembering a question you want to ask. Or giving yourself a few minutes to put something into words without needing to understand it completely.

For practitioners, it can be one more resource to offer when it feels appropriate. For clients, it can be a place to continue reflecting in the days between conversations.

A journal doesn't have to provide all the answers.

Sometimes, it just needs to give you somewhere to begin.

Ready to get started?