Why Your Therapist Keeps Telling You to Journal (and Why They’re Right)
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Written By: Undefeated Healthcare Editorial Team
Reviewed By: Chase Butala MS LPC, LCPC
12/23/2025
If you’ve ever been in therapy, there’s a good chance you’ve heard this one:
“Have you tried journaling about that?”
And if you’ve ever been a human with a busy life, your answer might’ve been:
“Sure, I thought about it once… while doom-scrolling Instagram.”
Let’s be real—journaling sounds easy, but actually doing it? That’s a whole different story. Still, there’s a reason therapists across the world, from Freud to TikTok-era counselors, keep recommending it. Journaling is one of the simplest, cheapest, and most effective mental health tools out there.
Why Therapists Encourage Journaling
Therapists love journaling because it externalizes your thoughts. That’s psychology-speak for: “getting the chaos out of your head and onto paper.”
It’s a cornerstone of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), one of the most evidence-based therapies around. In CBT, journaling helps you spot thinking traps like “I’ll never be happy,” or “My cat definitely hates me.” Once those negative patterns are on paper, they’re easier to challenge.
Other types of therapy use journaling, too:
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): focuses on journaling emotions and triggers to improve mindfulness and emotional regulation.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): encourages writing about values and goals, helping you live more intentionally.
Trauma-focused therapy: uses structured journaling to process painful memories in a safe, gradual way.
In other words, therapists don’t tell you to journal because they’re out of ideas. They tell you to journal because science backs it up.
The Benefits of Journaling (Backed by Research, Not Just Pinterest)
Study after study shows that journaling offers benefits for both mental and physical health, including:
Reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression
Improved memory and cognitive function
Better problem-solving and emotional clarity
Stronger immune system and lower blood pressure (seriously!)
Increased self-awareness and personal growth
And unlike gym memberships or green juice subscriptions, journaling doesn’t cost a dime. All you need is a notebook and a few honest minutes a day.
The Many Styles of Journaling
There’s no “one-size-fits-all” way to journal. Here are a few styles that people actually stick with:
Gratitude Journaling: Write down three things you’re thankful for daily. Bonus points if one isn’t “coffee.”
Stream-of-Consciousness Writing: Let your thoughts flow freely for 5–10 minutes—no editing, no judgment, no grammar police.
Prompt Journaling: Use guided questions like “What made me smile today?” or “What challenge taught me something?”
CBT Thought Records: Track negative thoughts, evidence for and against them, and reframe with something more balanced.
Bullet Journaling: For the organized soul (or the procrastinating perfectionist), this blends journaling with productivity planning.
Find the style that doesn’t feel like homework, and go with it.
The Dark Side of Journaling (Yes, It’s a Thing)
Here’s something most Instagram journaling influencers won’t tell you: journaling can sometimes make things worse.
Studies have found that rumination journaling—writing obsessively about negative events without reflection or solutions—can actually increase distress. It’s like emotional recycling: same garbage, different day.
That’s why structure and intentional positivity matter. A healthy journaling habit should help you process, not stew. If you find yourself replaying the same argument from 2009 every night before bed, it might be time to switch gears.
Why It’s Hard to Start (and Even Harder to Keep Going)
Let’s face it—starting a journaling habit feels noble for about three days. Then life happens.
Common barriers include:
Perfectionism: You think your entries need to read like poetry. (They don’t. You’re not submitting this to The New Yorker.)
Time: You “don’t have time,” but you do have 47 minutes to browse Reddit.
Self-consciousness: You worry someone will find your journal. (Pro tip: hide it in the “tax documents” folder. No one looks there.)
Boredom: It feels repetitive or dull. The trick is to keep it varied and personal—don’t write what you think you should write.
Consistency beats perfection. Even a few sentences a week can make a difference.
The Bottom Line
Journaling isn’t just for angsty teenagers or aspiring novelists—it’s for anyone trying to better understand themselves. Done right, it can bring structure to chaos, awareness to emotion, and hope to hard days.
At Undefeated Healthcare, our therapists often use journaling as a key part of therapy—helping clients connect thoughts, feelings, and actions to create lasting change.
So go ahead—grab a notebook, lower your expectations, and start scribbling. Who knows? You might just write your way toward feeling undefeated.
