Put Your Feelings Here: A Creative DBT Journal for Teens with Intense Emotions

by Lisa M. Schab

A fun and creative journal to help you balance your emotions, deal with difficult experiences, and just be yourself. Life is full of reasons to feel angry, sad, scared, overwhelmed, and frustrated—and that’s okay! If you’re like many teens, you probably have moments when you “feel all the feels,” and it’s important to know that this is perfectly normal. But, if your emotions feel out of control, or are getting in the way of school, relationships, and all the things you care about, this journal can help. Put Your Feelings Here is a safe and creative space for you to work through difficult emotions using 100 engaging and action-oriented prompts grounded in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). With this journal, you’ll find 100 new ways to release, reduce, and manage intense emotions in the moment so you can feel balanced, calm, and happy again. Using these fun prompts, you’ll learn how to express yourself creatively through writing, art, and more. Emotions are a normal, healthy part of being human—and emotions can be excellent fuel for art and writing. Let this journal be your special place for writing down your feelings, making your own rules, and expressing yourself. Go ahead and make it yours ! A special note for clinicians and other Journaling exercises are a proven-effective adjunct to talk therapy—helping teens bypass defenses, explore feelings in a non-threatening manner, and develop trust in their own coping skills. This journal marks the second addition to the Instant Help Guided Journals for Teens series, which offer evidence-based therapeutic tools in a format that appeals to teens.

208 pages, Paperback

Published January 2, 2020

About the author

LCSW

Reviews

[mad mags]

Not just for teens!

(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this journal for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program.)

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a form of psychotherapy that "combines standard cognitive-behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality-testing with concepts of distress tolerance, acceptance, and mindful awareness largely derived from contemplative meditative practice." While it originated with efforts to treat borderline personality disorder, evidence suggests "that DBT can be useful in treating mood disorders, suicidal ideation, and for change in behavioral patterns such as self-harm, and substance abuse."

In Put Your Feelings Here, social worker Lisa M. Schab distills DBT concepts into a guided journal. The exercises help users identify unhelpful or distressing thoughts and emotions, work through them, changing what they can - and accepting what they cannot. The result feels a lot like a fusion of CBT and mindfulness, and not in a bad way.



















I'm not a therapist, or a teen with intense emotions, so I can't really say how well Put Your Feelings Here works as DIY DBT. However, it is a pretty thoughtful and stimulating journal, with exercises like "What beliefs about nature/religion/spirituality/the purpose of life/a higher power give you comfort?" and "Intense emotions can hurt. You don't need more pain. List 10 things you could do to be kind to yourself instead of hurting yourself more."

Though it's directed at teens (and obviously so, what with prompts like 'turn your OMG into LOL' and instructions to design your emotions like an app) my 41-year-old self found many of the prompts stimulating.

The journal features a moderate amount of artwork, which is is cute, complements the exercises nicely, and definitely gets the creative juices flowing. Most of the prompts have ample room to record your responses, though a handful of the pages could benefit from more white space.

Also, this might seem like a minor thing, but as a lifetime journaler: I loooove the lay-flat binding, which makes it so much easier to actually write in journals, as intended. It's the small details, okay.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2020/03/26/...

[JP]

When I selected this creative workbook, the online description didn't include the sub-title: A Creative DBT Journal for Teens with Intense Emotions. While that description doesn't really fit me, I still pursued the exercises as a creative journey in self-discovery. The timing also coincided with Lent, so it felt like a fitting time for self reflection. This book has two hundred pages of journaling, free-association exercises and other activity prompts to help someone reveal and deal with their emotions. I can see how it would be especially useful to a younger person discovering how to realize and process what they are feeling. For similar reasons, the exercises can be useful to anyone, in much the same way meditation and dialogue with a friend can help us.

[Kait Vanderlaan]

Put Your Feelings Here is a great resource for teens, young adults, and I think even some adults would be receptive to it as well. I am a Therapist who works with teenagers and young adults, and I am excited to have this journal for clients. It is filled with prompts for writing, drawing, reflecting, and learning new skills that utilize concepts from DBT. Each page is visually appealing and packed with the opportunity for exploration and processing of emotions. Excellent resource if you’re looking for a guided journal for personal use or as part of therapy.

[Meredith Spidel]

I love what Schab is trying to achieve here--a safe outlet for teens/tweens to express their feelings (never more prevalent than during these dicey days!). With her informed, smart guidance, this smart expression works and is productive--a win worth visiting!