In fact in the court systems diaries and journals can be considered admissable in a court as evidence. Many a secretaries journal has saved a company money based on their record of a business event later disputed in court, acting as a form of receipt and evidence. Writing information down provides a clear means to express your emotions, vent on paper and examine your feelings. A good form of therapy in and of itself, one recommended for victims, although it is usually done in the form of letters to the victimizer and the letter is usually destroyed as part of the method of ridding oneself of negative emotions. Reality therapy goes quite well with journaling in that it provides a daily record for you to track goals and accomplishments, as well as take a real look at what you are doing in life.
Reality therapy asks four basic questions.
By tracking your goals and objectives and asking yourself reality based questions you can not only see what some of your stumbling blocks are in life but also try to work out problem solving strategies, and solutions. You can start to move forward instead of being doomed to repeat failures or mistakes. Reality therapy allows you to do a reality check daily and move forward in your personal growth. Pastoral counseling and spiritual direction are also forms of therapy that use journal writing to encourage the individual towards personal and spiritual growth. An excellent example is choosing key writings or thoughts and centering a journal and questions around them for self examination.