Journal/Log Example*

Daybook: Specifications and Cover

Each student should purchase or provide a paper folder, 81/2" x 11" in size with 3-ring paper holders for use in the Daybook assignment this semester. This will permit the addition of paper to the book as necessary. The cover of the Daybook should be well marked and use a format similar to the example below.

FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY

GROUP COUNSELING DAYBOOK

INSTUCTOR: _____________________ ACADEMIC TERM: ______________

Property of:

Name: ___________________________________

Address:____________________________________________________________

Phone: __________________________________________________

(If found, please return to owner or to Mike Tyler, FGCU, BHG II, Room 124, Ft. Myers, FL.)

 

Guide to writing in the Daybook

The Daybook is like a diary but different in that it is not a simple chronicle of events and situation that occur in the laboratory group. Rather than summarizing what happened, your focus in writing should be upon your own feelings as you experienced them in the group. You may have feelings regarding other people in the group, the leader, yourself, or the group in general.

Following are some guidelines:

  1. Write in the Daybook as soon as you can following each group experience. This will make your recollection as current as possible.
  2. Focus on you own affect, rather than upon other people or group process.
  3. Be specific and concrete.
  4. Try to make the Daybook an extension f the group experience rather than a summary. It should be an exercise in depth self-exploration.
  5. The logical extension of "getting in touch" with your current feelings is to inspect them for motivation.
  6. Treat the Daybook as you would any professional material that is highly confidential in nature. The Daybook will be read by the course instructor and your group facilitator.

Following are some excerpts from Daybooks that illustrate the kind of material that is most helpful to the writer:

Excerpt #1- . . . perhaps that's why I'm so interested in _________ as an individual. I'm also wondering if significant people for me develop because of their approval, trust, and liking-- it has a big part to do with it. I have enjoyed very few people who gave me negative feedback. Criticism is difficult for me to accept-- but I find a deeper respect and eventual high regard for those who give me criticism in a building way.

Excerpt #2- When Marilyn said we weren't totally strangers, it really hit me that that's exactly what I felt- a stranger, separate and alone. While I was forced to be open, to reveal myself the first time, I was glad because I wanted almost to be forced to be open, to reveal myself although it scared the hell out of me to do it. I wanted the group to focus on me because I wanted to be reassured that they wouldn't let me get by with being phony, that they wouldn't just leave me as I was.

Excerpt #3- So a woman is good, kind, open, and honest and really has some basic strong points. But these are not selling points in today's market. Is what I am asking too much? I really can't believe that it is. But I find myself doubting me and even the strong points when I face the everyday world I live in. I almost want to shout, "I have played the game fair and done everything I was taught to do and still it isn't enough. Why? Why? Why?"

Excerpt #4- I winced a little as Frank suggested that Jim was not being open. It was obvious that Jim felt great pain at such a charge. I too felt the pain because even though I would like very much to be open, I don't seem to know how.

 

 

FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY

Structure for Daybook entries.

Session No. ____________ Date _______________________________

  1. Group Goals. Were the group goals defined? Do they change from session to session?
  2. Personal goals. Are your own goals well-defined, unclear or in the process of development? Do they change from session to session? Are they specific or general?
  3. Group Process. What was the level of interaction, intellectual, feeling oriented, additive? Is the group stuck or moving, are there sub-groups? What is the emotional climate of the group in general?
  4. Personal/Individual. Names are O.K., but not necessary). (a) What are the attitudes, feelings, beliefs and reactions/behaviors of individual group members? Myself**: How did I feel , respond and behave? Did anything get triggered in me? What avenue of self-exploration can I pursue to learn more ab0ut myself?

    5. **This should be the are where you devote most of your attention.

  5. Session. What did this session accomplish. (a) for the group, and (b) for me?

 

 

* This material is from Conyne, R.K., Wilson, F.R., & Ward, D.E. (1997). Comprehensive group work: What it means and how to teach it. Alexandria, VA: ACA.