Do you journal or write to vent or figure things out?
Do you want to offer your inner voice a soothing lozenge?
Do you spend so much time taking care of other people that you have no idea how to help yourself?
Do you make choices that make you wish you could choose not to make any more choices?
Have you hit a plateau in therapy or just hate it?
ME TOO! (thank goodness, I thought I was the only one)
Welcome to Guiding Write
Journal on purpose.
I’m Liz Verna, LCAT, a licensed creative arts therapist, lifelong journaler, and purveyor of creative superpowers. I believe in creativity because it has never let me down the way therapy has, it has never been politely horrified by my terrible choices as my friends have, and it has never told me I can’t have a working cotton candy machine in my car as the police have. When my life fell apart in a perfect storm of dysfunctional patterns, financial devastation, and unbearable heartbreak, it was journaling, consciously and purposefully, that snapped me out of my patterns and into my future. Want to hear more? Click right here:
Journaling lets you reflect your self to yourself.
A journaling practice is a way to recognize defense mechanisms that tell you to pretend you feel great when you don’t. It’s a way to understand why you do those things you don’t understand. It’s a way to smooth out the wrinkles of the past and untangle the present. It’s a superpower, a tool you have right at the end of your pen. It’s calming, you can leave the stress on the page. And it’s easy, and easy is so easy!
Bring a journaling practice into your life by starting with just 5 minutes a day
If you are reading this, it’s safe to say you’ve had at least some of a childhood. And that means you’ve had experiences, good and bad, that have shaped the way you perceive the world. These perceptions come from your interpretations of these experiences, determining what is dangerous and safe, enjoyable and scary. And then defense mechanisms gather around to protect you from things that felt like chaos or caused you pain, and their job is to use thoughts and behaviors to keep you away from these situations and emotions.
But what if you want to shed those defenses?
What if an experience of betrayed trust created in you a constant, pervading distrust of all people to protect you from experiencing that hurt again but you’d now like to move out of your hut in the woods and give humanity another try?
What if the trauma of your parents’ divorce keeps you in a loop of sabotaging your relationships and you’re tired of it?
What if you want to see for yourself if you still need the protection of defenses intent on keeping you stuck because change and growth are scary, and their job security depends on keeping you away from scary things?
“The positives of Liz and her program are almost too expansive to list! It provided for a balance of structure (weekly check-ins to encourage me to stay committed to my growth), authentic verbal exchange, humor, compassion, and fluidity. The tools offered - writing prompts, affirmations, and discussion - invited me to delve deep into subconscious blocks and strengths alike. The writing exercises were transformative and brought forth some powerful positive shifts for me. I am so very grateful to Liz’s program and for her generous heart.”
Creativity is the key.
Defenses hear us talking to our friends or therapists and kick into gear. They deny or deflect, keeping us distracted and fixated on the dysfunctional patterns, the critical self-talk, or the bad decisions we experience. What we can’t see are the real mechanisms underneath, and so we can’t change them.
But the loose, non-linear thought pathways of creativity can zip past these defenses and shine a light on the old beliefs driving them. Journaling as the adult you are now can calm the fearful child in you, or loosen the restraints of defenses that offer you lots of knee-jerk reactions but few coping skills. Journaling gives you access behind the curtain, to see, neutralize, and create healthier beliefs, and therefore healthier decisions, thoughts, and behaviors.
If you have 5 minutes a day, you have time to journal.
5 minutes a day to write about your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
5 minutes a day to journal about other times you thought, felt, or did these things.
5 minutes a day to speculate why, and wonder about the validity of past fears.
5 minutes a day to confront limiting thoughts and test them against reality.
5 minutes a day to journal about forgiveness, find compassion for your past mistakes, and release yourself from judgment.
5 minutes a day to put new beliefs into place, and affirm them in your writing until they take hold in your subconscious.
5 minutes a day to see changes in your thoughts, decisions, and behaviors, now motivated by empowered, positive subconscious material.
5 minutes a day. And you can wear pajamas.
Journaling
gives words to feelings, making them easier to look at and manage. It feeds your creativity, keeping problem-solving or new perspectives fluid. It eases stress, shaking anxious energy out of your body with the back-and-forth movement of your hand.
“Liz helped me out in the middle of my second year in college when I was having trouble deciding my major. I had already invested time and money in two majors and still didn’t feel right about any of my decisions.
The writing exercises that Liz created helped me delve into deeper feelings surrounding my decisions and helped me uncover the underlying issues that played into making bad choices. After working with her, I was able to move forward into a more fulfilling major that was more congruent with who I am.
I would highly recommend Liz’s approach to finding your true voice and empowerment. ”
Uncover Hidden Blocks
If they stop you from journaling, they stop you from doing lots of other stuff
Confront Sabotaging Beliefs
They tell you old fears are new
Navigate the Subconscious
It’s a nice place to visit because you live there
Analyze Patterns and Shift Behaviors
Free yourself of defenses and choose your reactions
Liz Verna offers four-week sessions of illuminating, expanding, awesome-inducing clarity and growth.
Weekly 1-hour individual Zoom coaching calls, and follow-up emails filled with recaps, prompts, and encouragement.
Four weeks of journaling and reading your writing to reflect and go deeper. Then journaling about those reflections to illuminate the ways subconscious thoughts are dictating your perceptions of yourself, the world around you, and every decision you make. And then journaling to replace faulty beliefs with ones that support the life you want to have.
“I worked with Liz during a time in my life when I was coming to terms with the physical and sexual abuse I had endured as a child. This, of course, is an extremely sensitive issue for me, one which plagued me for years and took a toll on my quality of life, to say the least.
I’m so grateful to have worked with Liz. Her approach in helping me cope with my past through the writing suggestions gave me so much more insight than some of the regular traditional therapy sessions I had in the past and it powerfully complemented the work I was doing with my therapist and led to quicker breakthroughs.
I found Liz’s writing program to be invaluable and a useful tool I can use throughout the rest of my life, and I was able to deal with such a difficult issue in the gentlest of ways. Liz is compassionate, empathetic, and encouraging and I can’t thank her enough.
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