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Journaling for Behavioral Change and Growth with Myah Revis, PhD Candidate
Brady Dowling
February 24, 2025
In this episode of The Adaptive Mind we dive into the world of therapeutic journaling. In this conversation, I’m joined by Myah Revis, a 5th-year clinical psychology doctoral student specializing in trauma psychology. She shares how journaling and writing prompts serve as powerful tools to process challenging experiences, ultimately fostering mental well-being.
After listening to this episode you’ll learn:
Why journaling is an effective form of self-expression and mental decluttering.
The role journaling plays in promoting neuroplasticity and behavior change.
Practical techniques and approaches for both beginners and seasoned journalers.
The benefits of incorporating journaling alongside traditional therapy.
Brady Dowling: Welcome to this episode of the Adaptive Mind. Today we have Myah Revis, who is a 5th year clinical psychology doctoral student. She’s interested in specializing in trauma psychology, where therapeutic strategies like writing prompts and journaling exercises help people overcome some of the most challenging mental health disorders. Myah, welcome and thanks for joining today.
Myah Revis: Thank you so much, Brady. I really appreciate the opportunity to come on.
Brady: Yeah, for sure. So I guess to start at a high level, what is it about journaling that’s so valuable for our minds?
Myah: I think journaling is very valuable because it’s a form of expressing yourself. So we often think about people expressing themselves through music or dance or, you know, some type of art. But you can think of journaling as a way of expressing yourself as well. It’s a great tool to express, get all your thoughts out, your ideas. And it’s just a way that allows you to kind of make sense of things that are bogging your mind down.
Brady: So, yeah, I think for me, what you just said kind of strikes because a lot of times I’ll have thoughts swirling and once I put it on paper, then that’s when it makes a lot more sense to me.
Myah: Exactly.
Brady: So how does journaling promote neuroplasticity or changing our minds or how might it help someone change their behaviors?
Myah: Yeah, so there are a few evidence based therapeutic interventions that encourage the use of journaling as a way to help someone relive, like, certain challenging experiences. So through those interventions, they’ll have the person write about a specific event and then they will guide them through the therapy with different writing prompts. So one prompt may be, how do you think this event has impacted your life? And so through these different prompts, the person is able to process the experience in a different way, which then can turn into behavior change because they’re looking at the situation from a different perspective.
Brady: I see. So it sounds like they’re almost in a traditional talk therapy setting. But instead of talking out the answer, the patient or the client is writing out the answer. Is that right?
Myah: Right, that’s exactly right. And that can be beneficial for people who are, you know, who thinks it’s, you know, it’s scary to go to therapy, you know, writing about it may be more comforting for them.
Brady: Got it. Okay. And what, beyond those things, what are the other benefits of journaling that people might get?
Myah: I think the biggest benefit is just the relief that you can get from it. I’ve heard of this exercise where if you’re like angry with someone to write a, write them an angry letter or something. And then maybe throw it away or set it on fire or something like that. And I think that that just speaks to how you can relieve some of those tensions through just writing something out and then, you know, not being attached to it and just throwing it away. So I think that could be really beneficial.
Brady: Yeah, I actually, sometimes when I write things down that are on my mind, that are weighing on me, like, I feel like I need to do them really badly once I write them down, it actually, in a way, makes me less motivated because it’s almost like I’m giving it up and I don’t need to hold onto it as much anymore.
Myah: Right.
Brady: So when you’re journaling, I guess these days, there are many different ways to kind of document your thoughts. So you could be writing with pen and paper. You could be typing on a computer. You could even be recording on voice recorder on your phone. Does the medium make a difference in the effects that this journaling has on the person who’s doing it?
Myah: Well, I think it is very beneficial to journal in any form, Whether it’s a voice note or you’re. You’re writing in your notes on your phone, like texting, or you’re writing it out. It’s benefits to all of them, because those thoughts that you. That you have inside, it’s not just staying in your brain, you’re actually getting them out. But research does show that when we write something, our brain processes it in a much different way than if we are just like typing. And so there are also some therapeutic interventions where they really encourage you to write something instead of typing it, just because of the way our brain engages with writing versus typing something.
Brady: I see. So it’s kind of twofold. One is it’s just the process and act of getting these thoughts and probably emotions out. But then it’s also doing this actual physical activity of putting pen or pencil to paper and putting thoughts down there.
Myah: Right, exactly.
Brady: So when someone is journaling, oftentimes for me, when I journal, my metric that I go for is like, I want to do a page, or I want to do two pages, whatever. I’m counting pages. Are there. Is there like a certain number of pages or time? Or is there any kind of metric that’s specifically important, or is that kind of just fluff? Like, is there a certain thing that people should be aiming for when they’re journaling?
Myah: I will say this is a great question because I personally will write and I’ll look up, and I have wrote three pages, and so maybe I do need to. You Know, kind of cut mine down to one or two pages. But as far as, like, therapy wise, you know, there are some interventions where the client will need to write at least, you know, for 15 minutes that is proven to be effective, and then you have other interventions where it’s 30 minutes. So I would say at least 15 minutes of writing would give the person enough time to at least start developing something related to what they want to write down.
Brady: Got it? Yeah. I think for me, when I’m writing things down, it helps really any amount of time to write. But like you said, once I get into 10, 15 minutes, then it’s really just kind of pulling any kind of thoughts or emotions out and I can get in this kind of rhythm where it just feels nice and feels calming and peaceful. I guess so getting, I guess, still a little nitty gritty. But would you count a to do list as journaling or are there different approaches to journaling that could still benefit somebody? If it isn’t necessarily this was my day or, you know, kind of the classic journaling experience?
Myah: I personally would rec. I definitely would say a to do list is a form of journaling because in our day and age, we are so busy, we have sometimes double things booked in an hour. And so sometimes we forget these things and then we have it in our minds. And that’s very overwhelming to think about all things we have to do. And so it goes back to what we were talking about earlier, about relief. You know, if you write all these things down, it’s relieving to first of all get it out on paper. And then it’s a way to organize yourself too. And so I definitely would consider a to do list to be one. It’s also beneficial because we can organize our day or our behavior, maybe categorize, you know, what’s most important, what can be done later. So it’s definitely beneficial. And then as far as, you know, how to go deeper, you know, it’s just an opportunity to, you know, like you were saying, like, instead of just writing about your day or how you feel about something, but take it as a step deeper and say, how did this interact interaction in this day impact how I thought about this person or how I thought about myself? And so just kind of processing and doing that reflective writing would definitely transition, you know, your journaling from just this, you know, small topic to a larger scale thing.
Brady: I definitely can see that in, in my experience, when I go from like saying, you know, I went to the store, I did this, I did that, this, like factual statements in what I’m writing to saying, how did this make me feel? Or what are some things I’m going to do different? Or really, like, just taking it up one small notch, then I think it makes a huge difference. So can you talk about, like, the timing or the cadence? Is there a certain time of day that would be. That’s most helpful to journal or maybe like a frequency that’s. That’s ideal for journaling?
Myah: Yeah, I. I find it most beneficial when I write when I’m overwhelmed with a lot of different things. And it doesn’t have to necessarily be when you’re overwhelmed. You know, you can write for enjoyment. You know, if you, you know, heard a funny joke or something like that, you can journal about why it was funny. No. So I think it really just depends on the person and, you know, their schedule. Some people may wake up and journal, or some people may journal right before bed, because, you know, that could be a form of relaxation before going to bed. So it really just depends on the person.
Brady: Got it. Very personalized and specific approach to that person. So I think, yeah, maybe trying out lots of different things or being willing to experiment on different things could be helpful.
Myah: Right? Exactly.
Brady: Do you feel like journaling could be a replacement for maybe a traditional talk therapy?
Myah: Well, journaling is used in a lot of different therapeutic interventions. You know, sometimes journaling can be assigned for homework. So I think it’s really best to be added to, if you’re seeing a therapist, to also go home and journal and maybe even journal about the session that you had or, you know, whatever your therapist may assign you. But journaling is definitely assigned as a form of homework in therapy.
Brady: And then we’ve kind of touched on some of these that. That would be really useful. But for someone that’s just getting started journaling, what are some tips that you would give to kind of help them jump into it or maybe even ease into it?
Myah: Yeah, so it really goes back to the to do list. You know, starting something like that, especially for our overthinkers out there, you know, just think a lot. It’ll be really great to just start with, okay, so what do I have to do for the day? Or, you know, what do I have to do for the week? What are the different events that I have to attend this week? I think starting there would make journaling not so, I guess, demanding. And then for people who are already already journaling, I think just go a step further and process it a little bit deeper. So if you normally just write about situations that make you angry or sad, things like that, maybe writing about situations where you felt joy, or if you do write about situations that have been stressful, maybe doing some more reflection in there and maybe thinking about, okay, so what does this mean for me and what do I think about myself? And you’ll start to notice some thought patterns you have, and then that will help you to look at things from a different perspective.
Brady: Amazing. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Myah. I really enjoyed our conversation, and I think there’s a lot that I can take out of it and really apply into my life right away. So thanks so much for joining.
Myah: Thank you.