Intensive Journal Program for Self-Development
Progoff Series of Workshops

Specialized Audiences | Professional Development | Ministry

Endorsements

A Recognized Tool for Clergy Self-Care
"Some people find working with their thoughts and feelings through the written word to be their most profound spiritual discipline. One of the most popular, and most profound, is the Intensive Journal developed by Ira Progoff...These descriptions should give you some idea of the rich opportunities for insight available in the Progoff Journal. I encourage you to attend a Progoff workshop ...I found the workshop to be a wonderful time to pull together the ragged edges of my life. If you can't attend a workshop, get a copy of Progoff's book At a Journal Workshop....for some of you this discipline will open many doors to your inner life."

Reprinted from Clergy Self-Care by Roy M. Oswald, with permission from the Alban Institute. Copyright © 1991 by The Alban Institute, Inc. Herndon, VA. All rights reserved. pp. 100-102.

"I have also found some forms of journaling to be helpful...my colleagues have suggested the Progoff technique. Ira Progoff’s journaling aims to help persons achieve harmony within themselves, with those around them (past and present), and with their life situation. It is a system of dialogue that helps a person identify and work through "unfinished business" from the past and be more fully and freely available for ministry in the present. ...pastors who are already serving may find the Progoff methods helpful."

Pastor as Person: Maintaining Personal Integrity in the Choices and Challenges of Ministry, by Gary L. Harbaugh, Augsburg Publishing House, 1984, p. 147.

"[I] have found the Intensive Journal [method] to be extremely versatile...using it to focus and clarify almost every aspect of my life and work while still keeping the whole movement of my life in view. My ministry to others has been enhanced greatly,...the Intensive Journal method has enabled my own growth and development and...I have found good use for its principles and methods....new dimensions of faith and relationship to God [have opened up] through the depths of my own journey to discover my own inner resources as a child of God, and to better perceive the way that God has been active in my life...."

The Intensive Journal [Method]: A Tool for Ministry, (Doctor of Ministry Thesis), by Rev. Dr. James D. Miller, Lancaster Theological Seminary, 1979, pp. 218-19.