#intensive journal

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An Introduction to Ira Progoff's Intensive Journal method

Ira Progoff was a not trained as a communication scholar nor a therapist, but a philosopher. His Ph.D. dissertation was written about the work of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, specifically, the social significance of Jung's work. Jung was impressed and invited Progoff to study with him in Switzerland. When Progoff returned, he became the Director of the Institute for Research in Depth Psychology at Drew University from 1959 to 1971. Dr. Progoff conducted research on the dynamic process  by  which  individuals  develop  more  fulfilling  lives  and  through  this  research,  he  then developed and refined the Intensive Journal method in the mid-1960's and 1970's to provide a way to mirror the processes by which people become dynamic and develop themselves. The Intensive Journal method is best learned by doing, and journal workshops, but isn't a must do. 

(via An Introduction to Ira Progoff's Intensive Journal method     Ira Progoff was a not trained as a... - justpaste.it)

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The Steppingstones of Ira Progoff: Bring Together Past, Present, and Future

A powerful journal exercise that Dr. Ira Progoff developed is called The Steppingstones. The exercise, part of his journal intensive program, helps uncover underlying long term patterns within your life. Progoff uses the sense of “movement” or “motion” in your life to help you move forward on your life’s tracks. The Steppingstones exercise helps you look at periods and significant events in your life, perhaps with the idea of carrying the thread of that movement forward. It is a good technique if you are in transition and looking for direction to move into the next phase of your life.

All quotes in this article are from Progoff’s book At a Journal Workshop: Writing to Access the Power of the Unconscious and Evoke Create Ability, written in 1975.

(via The Steppingstones of Ira Progoff: Bring Together Past, Present, and Future)

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The Steppingstones of Ira Progoff: Bring Together Past, Present, and Future

“The Steppingstones are the significant points of movement along the road of an individual’s life. They stand forth as indicators of the inner connectedness of each person’s existence, a continuity of development that maintains itself despite the vicissitudes and the apparent shifting of directions that occur in the course of a life. The Steppingstones are indicators that enable us to recognize the deeper-than-conscious goals toward which the movement of our lives is trying to take us.”

“…In Steppingstones, we draw out of the jumbled mass of our life experiences, the thin and elusive connective threads that carry our potentials toward a fuller unfolding.

“…By working with the Steppingstones, we make contact with these elusive lines of continuity that are seeking to establish themselves as patterns of meaning in our lives. ”

(via The Steppingstones of Ira Progoff: Bring Together Past, Present, and Future)

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Life Examined – The Progoff Intensive Journal Process |

Long before there were analysts’ couches, encounter groups, gestalt, bodywork, and the myriad other approaches to personal growth and transformation, people who wanted to search for meaning and perspective in their lives often wrote their thoughts, feelings and dreams in a journal.

Will help you change your relationship with yourself for the better.

(via Life Examined – The Progoff Intensive Journal Process | The Haven)

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Progoff's Intersections: Roads Taken and Not Taken

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Tonight was open house. I was a little anxious about it, to be honest, because it is a new school and everything is different. That's normal, really. I've done open house so many times, but I've always done it the way I've done it, and I'm not with TC anymore, or with AC either, and so I was nervous. How does it go here.

It turns out it goes easily. It goes like driving 2.8 miles home so that I can let my dog do his business, and then driving back and having dinner with colleagues at a restaurant nearby. It goes like sharing "something you love, and something that drives you crazy" and laughing and relating, because we are all dealing with your 15-year-old children right now, and we know what you mean. It goes like conversations afterwards, and compliments like "She never thought she'd love her teachers as much as she did last year" and "He said, 'You're as big of a hippie as me!'" It goes like tearful admissions, and reassurances "don't worry, we'll be patient" and "that sounds so hard."

Today I am reminded that I know how all this goes. The most difficult part is to navigate my DMV fines and whatever, and even that's not so bad. I've learned in a couple days that having really bad shit happen means that you can relate to other people's really bad shit, and that's kind of a cool thing. I can't tell you how many times this week people have heard my story and said, "Now I don't feel so bad about _____" and it's funny, because we exchange these heavy loads and find ourselves half as light as when we started, instead of twice as heavy. It's important to be able to laugh at the hard stuff. This is also life, and this too will pass.

Yesterday I learned what Fab Labs are, and I joined TF with Intensive Journaling and it was amazing. It was truly awesomely amazing. Morning meetings dedicated to personal betterment, to wellness, and I thought, yes, I have been craving this.  We sat around a table together, and he read to us Muddy/Clear and I could see it all. I could see the stream running madly, and full of so much mud and filth -- 210 citations and 75 DMV holds and $6599.99 dollars to renew my registrations and accidentally forgetting to renew my insurance and -- I could see it all coming to a stillness.

I could see all that whatever settling to the bottom. The water becoming clear on top. I could see myself, finally, as a reflection in the mirror and my image changing, transforming. I could see students that I have loved. I could see their smiles. Their joy. I could see people I missed, and have lost. I could see all these pieces that I have carried that also are me. Because I am love. The visible and the invisible, becoming at once clear.

It didn't mean the mud of everything wasn't there. It just made it feel so much less important.

What a truly beautiful way to start the day. We also paused to reflect on our station in life, and I was so happy to reflect. No one shared, because that wasn't the point. We weren't trying to get strategies. We were just trying to reach clarity.

The photograph I attached to this post is from two school years ago when myself and some students sat outside for at least an hour and watched the sunrise. Dawn seemed to last for ages, but finally, the sun peeked through the mountains and threw rays of golden light on everything. It was a moment of incredible rapture that filled me with such a peace to know, this is my vocation. Teaching is not just my job.

I feel that way again tonight.