I am teaching a couple more sessions to counsellors soon and I have been reading and making notes for a hand out
“Art journalling is the process of working through ideas, and feelings intuitively. You can use any method e.g simple collage techniques or doodling. ‘The key is to create for pleasure, to engage in the process, and let go of the product. ‘( Lisa Sonora 2016)”
Below are some example of mixed collages produced during a journalling project with Shelley Klammer – The first one is a more complicated page produced using lots of layers , doodling and kidnap note lettering
This one is more simple – I went through a magazine I didn’t particularly like – the February edition of NME and I picked out text and images that jumped out at me
This one is an example of a very simple page – I used 2 pictures as a background and then added text and images
“As a counsellor you could use art Journalling regularly as a method of self care and that is kept in a form that can be closed and put away. It is an effective means of stress reduction, and cognitive“workout” that flexes your creative muscles and sensory parts of your brain. ( Cathy Malchiodi 2013)
It is important as a counsellor that you have ways to look after yourself and ‘creativity is restorative, mentally, emotionally, and physically’ (Lisa Sonora 2016) ”
There are lots of more complicated-journal pages on my blog feed
I do a weekly session with my friend Deb in Oxfordshire (over Skype) we call our posts #soulseedsessions ( which can be found on Instagram) Deb organises a meditation session with a group of friends and then I join in with the art.
We are working through some Buddhist principles at the moment it is “Equinamity ”
Below is this weeks journal page- I used collage to make a more complicated design than those shown above – I built up layers of background using an image of a tree – Deb provides the layout and ideas; I tend to develop it in my own way. 
Last night I had a bit of a wobble so this morning I made this it’s called ‘whoops’
The back ground is acrylic paint that I used in a teaching session – to wipe my brush inbetween colours and to use up paint that would other wise be wasted . The stones are cut out of a magazine page and then shaded with watersoluble wax crayons.
At the moment I am going through a phase of working on water colour paper – then when it is dry peeling off a layer of paper from the back so that I get tears and rips in my images and uneven edges – it all helps with my equilibrium ( lol)
References
Lisa Sonora – email news letter Feb 2016
Cathy A. Malchiodi ‘Psychology today’ 2014
tesswyatt's Blog 