Kathleen Adams, LPC, PTR is a psychotherapist best known for her pioneering work in bringing journal therapy to the expressive arts therapies pantheon. She created her first journal workshop, now known as Journal to the Self (then, Write On!), during the first semester of her graduate education. From that moment, she knew the intersection between journal writing and psychotherapy was her life’s work. Teaching her journal workshops was a full-time occupation that put her through graduate school.
Kay spent her first five years as a therapist bringing individual and group journal therapy to in-patient and intensive out-patient psychiatric programs, working with teens, adults, those in substance abuse recovery, severely traumatized individuals, and HIV+/AIDS patients. She began private practice in journal therapy in 1994. In 1988 Kay created the Center for Journal Therapy, a global gathering place for those who know and want to learn the journal’s power for healing, growth, and change. Her first book, Journal to the Self (1990) became a New York best-seller and remains among the most enduring journal books in print. Kay has since added 13 titles to her body of work and has served as series editor for an expressive writing collection. In addition to Journal to the Self, her most popular books are Scribing the Soul: Essays in Journal Therapy; Expressive Writing: Foundations of Practice; Your Brain on Ink (with Deborah Ross) and Journal Therapy for Calming Anxiety.
Kay received credentials as a registered poetry therapist in 2000 under the tutelage and supervision of Dr. Peggy Osna Heller and Dr. Ken Gorelick. She began offering training as a mentor/supervisor in poetry and journal therapy in 2002. She is a past-president of the National Association for Poetry Therapy and has been a member for more than 30 years. She is a three-time recipient of NAPT’s Distinguished Service Award d has also received the Morris Morrison Education Award for excellence in training and education.
Kay is the convener and producer of three international journal conferences (1991, 2008 and 2016). She is a regular faculty member at both the New York and Los Angeles Expressive Therapies Summits, the National Association for Poetry Therapy annual conferences, and In 2008, the Center for Journal Therapy’s professional training division, the Therapeutic Writing Institute (TWI), opened its cyberdoors. TWI is a fully on-line, three-year program that grants certified journal facilitator and certified journal therapist credentials. A public-facing online school for personal journal writers, Journalversity, launched in 2019.
Kay lives and practices in suburban Denver, Colorado with her husband, Ken, and their standard poodle, Banjo. She can be reached at kay@journaltherapy.com.
Kay has 3 websites which you can find here:
Center for Journal Therapy: www.journaltherapy.com
Therapeutic Writing Institute: www.TWInstitute.net
Journalversity: www.MyJournalversity.com