Abbie at Play!: The Creative Journal by Lucia Capacchione

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Creative Journal by Lucia Capacchione

When i was in graduate school, one of our schoolmates luckily shared this wonderful book with us. A classic in Creative Journaling, it was born out of the author's own painful, beautiful, and magical process of healing and growth.

I have treasured it always, and was truly so sad! when, after leaving grad school, i couldn't find it in any other library. One fine day, a friend of ours walked into our house, said, "I thought you might like this," and handed me this book! He had found it at a second hand bookshop and had no idea how long i'd been looking for it!

The exercises in here are classic and always highly useful. I recommend it for use with children, teens, adults, and for yourself.

It's now on a reprint, and can be found at Amazon.com (see the Amazon widget, "Great Books to Check Out!" on my sidebar). Dr. Capacchione also now has "The Creative Journal for Teens", "The Creative Journal for Children", and "The Creative Journal for Parents."

Some of the exercises from the book are on an online version of the Journal! Check it out at http://www.healthy.net/CreativeJournal/ .

You can also catch Dr. Capacchione at her own website: http://www.luciac.com/index.html

Here is a very helpful website on Creative Journaling, by artist and creativity coach Amanda Joy, who was a student of Dr. Capacchione: http://www.joycreativejournal.com/

Enjoy!

3 comments:

do.gooderNovember 2, 2008 at 3:49 PM
thanks for sharing this! i'm teaching a practicum class in marriage and family counseling for pastoral counselors. i'll suggest this creative journaling to our trainees to further their growth process as helpers and healers.
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abbie at playNovember 2, 2008 at 4:56 PM
hi there do.gooder :)
nice to hear from you!
Yes creative journaling is so helpful for people in our profession, as we need to always be aware of our inner processes and to keep growing. best of luck!
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AnonymousDecember 4, 2008 at 3:32 AM
Hi Abbie,

Thank you for posting my joycreativejournal.com site. I have to say that going through the Creative Journal Expressive Arts training program, under the instruction of Dr. Capacchione, was the best and most challenging thing I've ever done and the fruits of that process are still blossoming.

I'm curious, how did you find my site?
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The Inner Self Communicates With Us Through Our Art

"For a person who works improvisationally most of the time, it may surprise you to know that art for me is about visual communication. The odd thing is that the communication is first and foremost from my heart to me. It's my inner, hidden self which speaks through the work of my hands.
The less I try to control the outcome; the less I fuss with "getting it right," the less I'm concerned about making art, the more of my truth is revealed. And when my truth comes out in the open, conveyed in my beadwork, I feel a great sense of wholeness, connection, and satisfaction."

--- Robin Atkins, bead artist

This is what I learned: that everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say. Everybody is talented because everybody who is human has something to express. Everybody is original, if she tells the truth, if she speaks from herself. But it must be from her true self and not the self she thinks she should be.

So remember these two things: you are talented and you are original. Be sure of that. I say this because self-trust is one of the very most important things in writing....

-Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write

The Voyage to a Place Inside Oneself

For a voyage to a destination, wherever it may be, is also a voyage inside oneself; even as a cyclone carries along with it the center in which it must ultimately come to rest.

At these moments I think not only of the places I have been to but also of the distances I have traveled within myself without a friend or ship; and of the long way yet to go before I come home within myself and within the journey.

And always when the curtains are lifted, the night is without, peering in steadily and constantly, with the light of the stars far beyond.

- Laurens van der Post, Venture to the Interior

Brother of the Sun and of Time

Let me hold your story
and fill my hands
with new sensations
that I've never seen before
which have never existed
which I couldn't have understood
without your song.
They bear your name
and trace out a road.
Let me take with me
a piece of our time together
and savour the warmth
a friend leaves behind.

Brother of the sun and of time
who cares what colour the wind is?
We are joined by the taste of a
dream.
Of being hand in hand
holding
a small piece,
a bit of a world
where you are allowed
to walk at your own pace,
to feel what you feel
and, although different,
to sing your own song

Let me take your conscience
and leave taking with me
the certainty
that although we are different
we're alike
That the heart beats
to the same beat
but your form
creates a new rhythm
Let me learn your music
and enrich my world
with the look of your eyes
and to find in your soul
a new home.

Brother of the sun and of time
who cares what colour the wind is?
We are joined by the taste of a
dream.

--- song by Margarita Boom
(see related post, A Beautiful Song of Friendship)