Anxiety Journal Template
Journaling can be an effective way to cope with overwhelming emotions. They can also assist in tracking our mental health symptoms in a way that helps us self-advocate for the care we need from our therapist, psychiatrist, or other mental health professionals. Keeping a mental health journal can be a particularly helpful way to boost the effectiveness of our journaling.
We can grow awareness and insight into our coping styles and relational patterns, even if we don’t suffer from a mental health diagnosis through:
- Journaling with prompts about our emotional well-being, and
- Using printable journaling worksheets about mindfulness and healthy coping.
Over time, the insight gained through journaling about anxiety, other mental health symptoms, and our general mental health and well-being can develop an understanding that will help contribute to more satisfying relationships and an increased capacity for resilience in difficult circumstances.
The collection of resources below is an assortment of journal templates, anxiety worksheets, stress management tools, and other interactive visual resources. Some of these resources are free printables, while other printable PDFs require a small fee. This fee helps keep my art sustainable by supporting my ability to continue to create. Fees for downloads also make it possible for me to offer many of my printable resources for free – especially resources serving historically marginalized populations. (All anti-racism, Spanish language, and ESL printable PDF resources are provided free of charge).
Note that while some users experiencing the symptoms of anxiety or depression may find that general journaling – or journaling using my worksheets and journal prompts – may be helpful, my site and available resources are not intended to diagnose or treat any mental illness and are available for educational and entertainment purposes only.
How to use a Therapy Journal + Journal Template
When I began my journey through my own therapy almost two decades ago, I journaled ferociously. Over the following years, I filled journals cover to cover as I processed, reflected, and deeply changed. Years later, in school to be a…
Anxiety Worksheet: Choose-Your-Own-Adventure
Sometimes, a roadmap is all we need to find our way out of a confusing journey. I find that flowcharts can sometimes be that roadmap for managing the symptoms that occur as a result of anxiety and depression. In this…
Anxiety Drawing: Visual Insights into the Anxious Mind
Sometimes words fall short to describe feelings. For many, the feeling of anxiety is difficult to capture. As a therapist and artist, I’ve seen drawing bridge this gap. Drawing can turn the vague foreboding body sensation of anxiety into something…
Anxiety, Bodies, and Family of Origin – The Place We Find Ourselves Podcast Sketchnote
If we’ve spent our childhood learning that certain feelings are Very BadTM and Totally UnacceptableTM, it’s no surprise that we may grow up to craft a universe for our adult self where anger, fear, sadness, or other big feelings aren’t…
How to Choose a Therapist – Illustrated
When you’re new to therapy and aren’t really sure what therapy is supposed to feel like, it can be really confusing to try and figure out if a first session or initial consult went well – how to choose the…
Anxiety Illustration: Spectrum of Anxiety Coping
Everyone has a different “default” way of coping with anxiety – and many of us will experience a shift from one extreme of the spectrum to the other at least once during our lifetime. While our culture praises the “brave” approach and shames the avoidant, the extremes of both approaches are equally harmful ways of avoiding the discomfort of being present to the tension of the middle ground. In this middle space – where we feel our fear but choose to tolerate some discomfort in order to grow – we inhabit our bodies, we have self-compassion for ourselves, and let ourselves experience the emotions inherent in doing things that are really, really hard.
Generalized Anxiety Art: A Doodle About Being Anxious for No Reason
This download includes a worksheet on generalized anxiety. The 1-page black-and-white worksheet is designed to flip brains from “therapy homework” mode into “interactive activity book” mode, which may help folks develop awareness, mindfulness, and self-soothing skills with less of the stigma or avoidance that clinical resources sometimes prompt.
Creating a Crisis Plan: A Free Printable Worksheet for Safety Planning
The best time to do good crisis work is when you (or your client, child, partner, friend, etc.) aren’t currently in crisis. Take some time out during the good times to: A crisis plan (sometimes called a safety plan) can…
Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Vicarious Trauma
In the simplest terms: burnout occurs when the stress we experience exceeds our capacity to cope with that stress. Some individuals may be able to thrive – at least in the short term – under high stress. However, chronic stress…
Intrusive Thought Flowchart – Illustrated Mental Health Resource
It’s not always this simple, but *sometimes* it is: shifts in how we respond to intrusive thoughts from PTSD or anxiety can shape our internal response and give strength to our future responses when intrusive thoughts arise. Sometimes just shifting…
6 Illustrated Ways to Boost Mood and Mental Health
With so much information and disinformation on mood, mental health, and practices to support both, it can be confusing to know how to care for our bodies. While influencers might pitch elixirs, tonics, and supplements to cure our ails- as…
Parenting Children with Anxiety
Image Description for Screen Readers A simple pie chart outlined in black atop a white background is divided into thirds. The top section, shaded in white, has an arrow pointing to it with the black-text label: “one in three children…
How to Start Therapy (When You’re Anxious About Starting Therapy)
First, know that we therapists get it. Starting therapy is hard for everyone and if you have specific therapy-related anxieties it’s super hard. If meeting new people is hard for you, it’s normal to feel extra anxiety about meeting someone…
Anxiety Doesn’t Have to Be the Enemy – Resources for Coping with Anxiety
What is Anxiety? Anxiety is a feeling of worry or fear that sits in our minds and bodies. It is an alert system, telling us that something is up. It can be felt when you are in a dangerous or…
How to Respond to Self-Harm – A Resource for Parents, Teachers, and Friends
Some research shows that between 7% and 47% of teens self-harm. The number of teens engaging in deliberate self-injury is, by some research estimates, about 23%. The likely hood that an average American teenager has deliberately self-harmed in the previous…