Method for Creative Development
Created by Dr. Ira Progoff, a depth psychologist, the Intensive Journal® program is an integrated system using writing exercises to help you develop your life.
Learn how to work with your experiences and emotions, resolve issues and gain a whole-life perspective. Give your work greater direction, clarity, and purpose by tapping into your creativity and by overcoming writer’s block.
Intensive Journal® exercises help you avoid preconceived ways of thinking to achieve breakthroughs that were previously not possible.
At our workshops, certified leaders guide you stepby-step through the exercises with the protections of total privacy. Our program has a 40-year history of helping over 175,000 people.
Implementing the Progoff™ Methodology Through the Intensive Journal® Method
The Intensive Journal® method, based upon Dr. Progoff’s unqiue approaches for self-development, has a solid foundation in theory and approach. Here are some of the method’s major features.
Intensive Journal® Workbook: Mirroring the Growth Process
The structure of sections and corresponding writing exercises in the Intensive Journal® workbook mirror the subjective process of perceptions and thoughts taking place inside yourself. Designed with minimal terminology, these procedures provide the means for moving directly into your inner process and drawing forth emotions and experiences to make them accessible and tangible for further development.
Inner Development: Evoking Your Potential
Focusing on inner development, where the most penetrating insights are generated, the Intensive Journal® method provides you with an integrated system for dealing with issues through a direct experience in your life. Certified leaders guide you step-by-step through the method in a contemplative atmosphere. Non-judgmental and non-analytical approaches further the psyche-evoking process. You become immersed in your own growth, drawing forth your unique potential and unfolding life process.
A Framework for Stimulating Your Creativity
The Intensive Journal® method provides you with a safe and effective framework from which to explore and develop your life.
Overcome Writer’s Block
The Intensive Journal® Process helps you access a stream of material generated from your life experiences. This flow brings certain symbols and images into consciousness, as well as life experiences and ideas that may have been forgotten or repressed. Because there is an inherent movement in the Process, fresh material and ideas are revealed.
Spur Your Creativity
If you feel stuck or unsure of what to do next in your writing, the Intensive Journal® Program allows you to enter the steady stream of repressed personal material. Discover ideas you never knew you had. Gain insights about the direction you would like your writing to take.
Develop Meaningful Personal Imagery
The Intensive Journal® Process provides a unique way of working with dreams and imagery to uncover meaningful personal symbols. This personal imagery can be transformed into powerful metaphors in your writing, bringing depth and intimacy to your work. By accessing your personal images, you can open up new doors in your personal life and professional life. Images can evolve and grow over time, to become sources for larger, more integrative works.
I have understood later…that all my pictures are dreams. Not in the meaning that I have dreamt them now, but in a way I have– I have written them, and I have seen them before I have written them. Everything I have seen or heard inside…or felt…And I have combined reality so exactly as the dreams combine. And every picture– every one of my pictures are dreams. And when– and if the audience secretly perhaps have seen inside, suddenly meet in their minds, meet my dreams. And feel that they are close to their dreams. I think that is the best communication.
Ingmar Bergman, in an interview with WNDT-TV New York
as quoted in The Dynamics of Hope by Dr. Ira Progoff.
Connect with Your Life Experiences
Draw on your life experiences to bring a sense of closeness and understanding to your work. The Intensive Journal® method is an invaluable tool for those who write memoirs or life stories. Our process puts you in direct contact with your unfolding life process. Gaining greater understanding of life experiences can enhance both your writing and self-understanding.
Journal Feedback™ Technique: An Active Dynamic Process
Through the Journal Feedback™ process, you avoid self-conscious analysis and preconceived ways of thinking to overcome blockages and foster breakthroughs. Issues are viewed from different angles to realize connections and to create integrations of awareness. Structured as an active and evocative instrument, the Intensive Journal® workbook helps you generate energy and momentum to move forward through cumulative ongoing entries.
Whole-Life Process: Greater Perspective and Safety
Progoff’s “whole-life” approach provides important benefits of perspective and safety. Greater awareness about a wide range of life experiences creates a foundation for making decisions. Issues can be viewed in a larger context and become more manageable. Using Progoff™ techniques allows for issues to develop, protecting you from premature judgments.
