My first workshop with the Intensive Journal method was in December 2014. I was retiring due to illness and the workshop brought me many insights and helped me move through a difficult time.
In September 2015, I moved my mom from Florida to Arizona to live with us. She could no longer live on her own and was beginning her dementia journey. We cared for my mom for three and one-half years. It was one of the most difficult periods of my life. Until someone becomes a caregiver, there is no way to prepare for it; each journey is difficult and different.
I believe the Intensive Journal workshops and my use of the method between workshops saved my sanity. It helped me gain some perspective and hope, as well as the techniques to work with a constantly changing situation.
I am extremely grateful for this process to help me live my life more effectively and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Sheila Green
Tempe, AZ

Learning the Progoff Intensive Journal method through Dialogue House workshops helped me tremendously as I cared for my aging mother. I was able to confront insecurities, fears and frustration that arose for me in this new role. I remember particularly engaging in a written conversation with my father using the method’s dialogue technique. He assured me that I was doing a good job and that my mother really appreciated my care. My father urged me to just keep doing what I was doing since I did it all with much love and that was what she mostly needed, not perfection.
The relief and insights that I got from using the Intensive Journal method could not have come about without the expert leadership and guidance of the Progoff workshop leader. I can't thank the program enough.

KJ
Chicago, IL

Over the past three years, my older sister has had dementia. She changed from a very private, independent woman to someone who lost interest in opening her mail or driving to the grocery store. Just in time, I was able to find a lawyer, create a trust document and powers of attorney, as well as order her food, arrange care and transportation, sell her house, and move her to independent living. We live three thousand miles apart.
I noticed that I thought obsessively about her needs and how I could improve her life. My sense of responsibility kept me up nights and gradually took up more and more room in my psyche. It pushed out my usual practices for creative expression and self-care. Other caregivers that I have met also described this gradual withdrawal of attention to their own lives and needs, as the other person’s very real and urgent needs have to be managed. It is exhausting and can become all-consuming.
During an Intensive Journal workshop, I began the first of many written dialogues with my sister, drawing from my internalized sense of her over our long lifetimes. I was stunned at how genuine and honest her responses were to my inquiries. She advised me exactly how she wished to be treated, what mattered to her and what didn’t. She taught me how to communicate with her, how to reduce and modify my “caregiving persona,” treating us as equals as much as possible.
Her dementia continues to worsen and she needs new levels of care. I get calls almost daily from frustrated caregivers as well as from my sister. My written dialogues continue to be vitally important. They help me offer empathy to her, and separation for myself from her distress.
It seems to me that the role of caregiving can undermine our own well-being. The Intensive Journal process is an excellent method of learning from our deep inner wisdom, retaining our own selves, and providing more empathic care to our care receivers.

Kathy Kramer-Howe, MSW
Phoenix, AZ