PLATTSBURGH -- West Chazy resident Catherine Tallon is among the 175,000 people nationwide who have bared themselves to themselves for self-growth through intensive journaling.

The method was developed in 1966 by Dr. Ira Progoff, a psychologist. In Vermont, Tallon attended a beginning workshop conducted by Avis Smalley, Ph.D., director of the Advanced Studies Program at the Manhattan-based Dialogue House Associates.

"It was an excellent experience," Tallon said. "It was a real opportunity to spend two days looking over your own life. The material and the way Avis presents it is very comprehensive and sensitive to all of your own concerns and issues and helps you look at your emotions and experiences in life and make connections in terms of relationships, career and health issues."

Tallon found it very easy to learn and do the process.

"You don't have to be a writer to go to this kind of thing," she said. "I'm not a great writer. It was very easy for me to find the words to write. It was wonderful to hear other people when they shared their journal writing."

Participants are not required to do that, she said, for journaling is a very personal experience.

"(But) the people who did get up to read," she said, "it's so powerful. It brings tears to your eyes."

PROGOFF'S METHOD

Smalley trained to become a leader after becoming impressed with the process when she took a workshop in the 1970s.

"I was going through a graduate program for a doctoral degree, and one of the requirements for that program was to keep a journal," said Smalley, who lives in Morrisonville. "One of my professors said there are a lot of different ways of keeping journals. He said this may be a method you are interested in. The book, At an Intensive Journal Workshop,' describes the method developed by Ira Progoff."

Progoff's method is very structured and incorporates many techniques. The process begins with the stepping stones of a person's life, which gives an over-arching view. The participants write chapter headings for different events they have experienced.

"We like to say that the thoughts are thinking us rather than we are thinking the thoughts," Smalley said. "It's much like meditation or one might say contemplative prayer, not that you're really praying, but you put yourself in the same state of receptivity to the spiritual side of your nature."

SELF EXPLORATION

Intensive Journals Workshops have three modules.

In Life Context, participants examine the broad canvas of their life, including past memories, to help them deal with the present. In a dialogue section, they work on relationships with people, body wisdom, society and spirituality.