The Journaling Workshop, held Thursday Oct. 26 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Bowers Center for Sports, Fitness and Well-being multimedia classroom 221, was an opportunity for students to be exposed to the benefits journaling provides. The Journaling Workshop was led by Caelyn King, a senior student at Elizabethtown College, who is graduating in December with an integrated studies major; she is studying a combination of psychology and communications. King is using this Journaling Workshop to complete her capstone research requirement for the integrated studies major. The Journaling Workshop is a four week long workshop, which started Oct. 26, and has a meeting the following three Thursdays: Nov. 2, Nov. 9 and Nov. 16. Each workshop will be held in the same classroom—Bowers Center multimedia classroom 221—at the same time slot (7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.). King will be the sole leader at all of these workshops.
The Journaling Workshop was composed of a presentation by King followed by a time for writing and then a reflection and discussion period. Her presentation for this first workshop was centered around the benefits of journaling and a beginner’s guide of how to journal. King’s presentation highlighted that the mental health benefit to journaling is using it as a tool to help express one’s emotions. Journaling also has academic benefits: it helps students track their academic process, to brainstorm practical solutions and to help themselves by setting themselves up for success. Both the mental and academic benefits journaling provides highlight the uniqueness of this stress relieving technique. In her opening presentation, King also shared how she became exposed to journaling. King took Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology Program Director and associate professor of psychology Elizabeth Dalton’s Psychology of Stress class where she learned about journaling, its benefits and the theories and research which supports journaling as a stress relieving technique.
After King’s presentation about the benefits of journaling, she explained how exactly one does the act of journaling. Journaling deals with stream of conscious writing: writing down whatever comes to mind and being honest with oneself in their journal writing. These introductory instructions allowed the audience to understand what they need to do to be successful with journaling to reap the benefits.
A prompt was then given in which the participants had fifteen minutes to respond in their own journals. Paper and pens were provided for those who did not have any, so everyone was able to participate in the exercise. The prompt for this Journaling Workshop was “identify a recent stressor or challenges you are facing and describe possible solutions or steps to overcome it.”
The fourteen people in attendance for this opening workshop took the fifteen minutes given to reflect on this prompt and write their responses in their journal/on their piece of paper. The calm atmosphere King provided enabled the participants to feel comfortable and engaged with the presentation and prompt. There was then a group discussion at the end of the workshop where those who felt comfortable were able to share what they wrote in their journal in response to the prompt given.
This Journaling Workshops provides Etown students with an opportunity to set aside some time to think and reflect on their goals, aspirations and how they can problem solve in the future. In only an hour, attendants can learn the benefits of journaling as well as engage in a journal prompt to practice this skill. This workshop is also a great place to meet someone new who is also interested in the rewarding act of journaling. If you have a Thursday night free, do not be afraid to jump out to this student-run workshop which helps King reach her capstone requirements while also providing the opportunity to learn a new skill!
