Patient Journal Resource

See the link below for a journal template that you can use to help you with your behaviour change goals.

Ever heard the phrase ‘if it’s not written down, it didn’t happen’?  Committing something to paper seems to make it more concrete in your mind.  Research carried out at Harvard University found that students retained information more successfully if they use written notes, compared with those that type their notes on a laptop.  There seems to be something about the physical act of writing that embeds information more successfully in your brain.

For this reason, journaling can be really effective when trying to make a behaviour change as it helps to firm up your intentions in the brain and make them more conscious.   Not only this, but it can also help you to start to use reflective practice, notice progress that you may not have seen if your weren’t looking back over time.

By recording positive experiences you can increase your confidence and self belief in the change, by recording negative experiences you can examine these in more detail to learn from them.

Another helpful aspect of a journal is that you can offload emotions or get things of your chest/out of your head.  You can record these thoughts and feelings in your journal without judgement.  You could record questions about these feelings that can be explored at future CBT appointments and so can serve as a useful tool to give focus to your journey.

There are lots of ways you can journal, some like to write a longer piece in a more conversational style, but simply spending a few minutes a day making short notes, writing a couple of things you are grateful for, noting your energy or mood level etc., can be a useful way to make sure you are considering your journey each day, keeping it at the forefront of your mind and offers a way to monitor success in more than one way.

We have created a template of a journal for you to use, you may not want to use all of the sections and you may wish to add your own bits, please use this in which ever way is most helpful to you.

Patient Journal


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