Hello & Welcome
Written by: Kristen Albano
Hello, and welcome to the Feelings First blog - a space for learning, practicing, and reflecting.
I’m Kristen, Registered Psychotherapist, owner, and clinic director of Feelings First Counselling & Wellness.
An accurate representation of me in-between sessions.
You might hear therapists suggest journaling as a therapeutic intervention. It can be a wonderful tool that supports our clients in engaging in thoughtful reflection outside of sessions. It’s gained a lot of popularity, with tons of articles highlighting its benefits all over the internet.
It can be a powerful form of self-care (ah, self-care.. we’ll dig into that topic in blogs to come). It can be a space to explore our thoughts and feelings without any form of judgement, simply, observation (mhm, mindfulness.. another juicy topic for blogs to come).
As for me? Not much of a writer. Have never journaled, ever. Actually, I do recall getting one of those journal/diary books when I was younger that had a lock on it for the real privacy that any 8 year old needs. I’m pretty sure all of those entries started with, “Dear Diary,” but hey, not a bad place to start.
Vulnerability and transparency are two important values to me, so I’ll be laying them all out here in these blogs. You know how some folks “vlog” trips or shopping hauls? Well, a lot of my blog posts will simply be me airing out my internal dialogue and personal reflections. They may not always make sense, but getting things out of my mind and onto paper has always helped when it's come to making lists, so I’m thinking it may be the same thing here.
If I have a place to share my thoughts, it may help me with my journaling journey. And who knows? Maybe it will help you too.
Journaling doesn’t have to be fancy, clear, concise, or glamorous. And I hope to show you that here.
I truly try to practice what I preach with my clients (for the most part, lol), so by being vulnerable, open, and transparent here, I truly hope I can provide that safe space for learning new information, practicing tools, and engaging in some helpful, but probably difficult reflection.
All it takes is a quick google search of "scholarly articles for the benefits of journal writing,” and the evidence is there.
Honestly, these blogs may prove to be as beneficial for me as I hope they’ll be for you.
If you’ve gotten this far, thank you for reading. At this point, just follow along! You’ll be hearing more from me soon.
