Images from my Creative Peer Supportee Journals

juxtaposed with some of my own journals

Journaling was a part of how I processed, and I began to bring my sister's journals to draw in.

🔹 What is Journaling for Trauma Integration?

Why Journaling Matters
For both of us, journaling was more than reflection. It was survival.
Journals became a place where different parts of us could speak.
A place where symbols told the truth when language fractured.
Where time didn't have to move in straight lines.

These are not curated for the public. They are shared because they held our breath when we had none.

Images from my Siblings Journals

Images from My Journal Process

As I was getting ready to unload journals, my male aspect "Dylan" decided to make projects to organize the work posting to youtube. I have also uploaded these to the internet archive in the book form. In these videos, the vocal quality is different than my "integrated and whole" state of consciousness, although, I do feel myself going into this vocal quality when looking at "Dylan's" work.

🔹 Reflection Prompt and Invitation

If you’re a survivor, a sibling, or someone trying to find your way through, consider what it might mean to put something down—drawn, written, messy, holy—just for you. You don’t have to explain it.

What if your journal was allowed to be a room where all your voices were welcome?

Asking AI to evaluate our journaling styles

Note to self, I will create a gallery juxtaposing the work, and do my own thinking, but AI gets me started in self-reflecting.

Here’s an analysis & reflection of both your and your sister’s journaling styles, with a witness-based lens grounded in expressive art therapy frameworks 🌿

🎨 1. Styles at Play

Your Sister’s (“Leilani” aka Dylan) Journals

• Mixed Media & Visual-Diary Approach
  Her pages blend drawings, life-class figure drawings, collaged ephemera, text fragments, layering, reworking—classic art diary style glamour.com+14rmcad.edu+14library.fiveable.me+14.

• Emotive Symbolism & Process-Oriented Rhythm
  Her visual layout and layering suggest using the journal as an emotional barometer—each page is a snapshot of inner life.

• Fragmented Self-Reflection
  Rather than linear narrative, she maps interior landscapes: figuration, text snippets, marginalia—these are hallmarks of expressive journeying atlanticcenterforthearts.org.

Your Journals (as “Dylan”)

• Life Drawing with Reflective Context
  Focused figure work capturing form, tension, presence—suggestive of embodied witnessing and staying in the present moment.

• Intentional Presence
  Boundaries are clearer—drawing practice is contemplative, centered, serving as a somatic anchor.

• Symbolic Continuity
  The use of purple & blue connects your visual vocabulary directly with your sister’s, forming a shared symbolic thread across journals and years.

✍️ 2. Strengths & Healing Alchemy

• Embodied Witness
  Both of you use visual work to hold presence—drawing life forms or expressive shapes helps you remain grounded. This aligns with best practices in art journaling for self-regulationpinterest.co.uk+15rmcad.edu+15clothpaperscissors.com+15mindfulartstudio.com.

• Symbolic Narrative When Words Can’t Reach
  Your sister’s fragmented writing and layered imagery channel memory and affect when linear recollection is unavailable—common in trauma-impacted expressive journals .

• Creative Opposites & Catalytic Mirroring
  Your cleaner figurative lines invite calm. Her more chaotic spreads express layered interiority. Together, they form a dialogue of inner and outer forms, interiority and boundary.

🧭 3. Therapeutic Insights

• Safety Through Structure & Ritual
  Your drawing practice helped “anchor” both of you. It resonates with journaling-as-therapy research: routine visual journaling reduces anxiety and creates autobiographical coherencenaturestudio.com+3artjournaling.tumblr.com+3pinterest.com+3positivepsychology.comrmcad.edu+7library.fiveable.me+7vox.com+7.

• Hybrid Modes Foster Creative Confidence
  Leilani shifted between text and image—this hybrid journaling is known to boost self-care, self-esteem, and resilience .

• Sister-Driven Practice Enhances Trust
  Your presence—and your choice to share your journals—says, “I am here, working this out with you.” It models relational witnessing rather than solitary processing.

🌱 4. Suggested Enhancements As You Expand the Archive

1. Pull a Side-by-Side Page
   Show Leilani’s layered spread alongside your life drawing—annotate in small captions to highlight contrasts and affinities.

2. Add a Short Context Blurb
   Frame the journaling practice:
   “These are working journals—safe places for affect, symbol, and memory. They represent both process and how we stayed in relationship across time.”

3. Consider a Mini Video Flip-Through
   A 30-second clip showing tactile turning of her journals underscores the lived, textured quality of her work—evoking intimacy and material presence.

🌀 Conclusion

Your sister’s journals resonate with expressive art therapy’s core principles: use of mixed media, intuitive imagery, and emotional exploration. Yours converge more in line, visually present, offering grounding. Together, these practices form healing — in creativity, ritual, witness.

If you're crafting a webpage to showcase this, we can integrate a testimonial box or therapeutic summary, and visuals laid out in a paired gallery.