The Art of Journal Coaching
The Art of Journal Coaching
Learn to use journal writing as a powerful tool for reflection, growth, change, and helping others.
Journal writing can be much more than a private practice. Used thoughtfully, it can become a remarkably effective helping tool—one that encourages reflection, deepens self-awareness, generates new possibilities, and helps people move from insight to action.
The Art of Journal Coaching is a comprehensive self-study training created by Eric Maisel and Lynda Monk, Director of the International Association for Journal Writing. It is designed for coaches, therapists, counselors, wellness professionals, workshop and retreat leaders, writers, journal enthusiasts, and anyone interested in bringing the power of reflective writing more fully into their work or life.
What is Journal Coaching?
Journal coaching combines the power of purposeful writing with the skills of thoughtful helping.
Rather than simply asking someone to “write about it,” a journal coach learns how to create targeted prompts, reflective exercises, and structured writing experiences that help people explore challenges, clarify choices, understand themselves more deeply, and take meaningful action.
Journal coaching can be used on its own or incorporated into an existing coaching, teaching, counseling, wellness, or creative practice.
Why Learn Journal Coaching?
You may want to explore journal coaching if you would like to:
- Add a creative and versatile helping tool to your existing work
- Help clients move beyond conversation into deeper reflection
- Create customized writing prompts and exercises for particular challenges
- Facilitate individual or group journaling experiences
- Lead journaling workshops, classes, retreats, or programs
- Develop journal coaching as a specialty or professional niche
- Deepen your own journaling practice and self-understanding
Because writing slows experience down and makes thought visible, it can allow people to notice assumptions, conflicts, desires, fears, possibilities, and choices that ordinary conversation sometimes passes by too quickly.
What You’ll Learn
The program explores both the philosophy and the practical craft of journal coaching, including:
- The fundamentals of journal coaching
- How to structure a journal coaching session
- How to decide when and how to use journaling with a client
- How to design effective prompts and reflective exercises
- How to use journal writing to support problem-solving, growth, and goal achievement
- How to facilitate journaling with individuals and groups
- How to incorporate journal coaching into workshops, retreats, and other programs
- How to develop and grow a journal coaching practice
The self-study program includes video instruction with Lynda and me, written lessons and reflective assignments, sample coaching sessions, interviews and perspectives from the field, and practical material you can return to as your work develops.
Learn at Your Own Pace
The Art of Journal Coaching is entirely self-paced. There are no scheduled classes to attend, so you can begin when you like and move through the material at a pace that suits your life and your learning style.
You might take the program because you are already a helping professional and want to expand your repertoire. You might be considering a new direction in your professional life. Or you might simply love journal writing and want to discover how much more consciously and effectively you can use it.
All three are excellent reasons to participate.
Interested in Exploring Journal Coaching?
If journal writing already matters to you—or if you are looking for a powerful additional way to help people think, reflect, discover, and change—The Art of Journal Coaching can give you both a framework and a practical set of tools for doing that work.
Learn more about The Art of Journal Coaching and begin the self-study program through the International Association for Journal Writing.
About
Lynda Monk & Eric Maisel
Lynda Monk, MSW, RSW, CPCC, is Director of the International Association for Journal Writing and a longtime teacher, coach, author, and leader in the field of therapeutic and transformational journal writing.
Eric Maisel, PhD, is the author of more than sixty books on creativity, meaning, mental health, coaching, and the challenges of the human experience. For decades, he has worked with writers, artists, coaches, helping professionals, and others interested in living more effectively, purposefully, and creatively.
Together, Lynda and Eric bring complementary perspectives on coaching, reflective writing, creativity, self-awareness, and human change.