Meet Center for Journal Therapy Team

Kay Adams, Founder & Director

Kathleen (Kay) Adams LPC is a best-selling author, speaker, psychotherapist and visionary. Her first book, Journal to the Self, is a classic that has helped define the field of journal therapy.

Kay is a beloved teacher whose innovative work has helped hundreds of thousands of people heal, change and grow. Her dynamic presentation style is fluid, clinically grounded, intuitive and engaging. She is the voice of journal therapy at conferences, hospitals, mental health agencies and seminars around the world. A tireless advocate for the healing power of writing, Kay is a three-time recipient of the National Association for Poetry Therapy’s Distinguished Service Award (1998, 2003, 2005) and in 2015 received the Morris Morrison Education Award for her leadership and excellence in education and training. She was a finalist for the first Season for Nonviolence Peacemaker Award in Colorado for her work bringing journal therapy to populations as diverse as people with HIV/AIDS, breast cancer survivors, recovering addicts, and survivors of violent crime.

In 2007, after years of training in small groups or guided independent study, Kay started the Therapeutic Writing Institute (TWI), a fully on-line training program featuring quarterly academic offerings in virtual classrooms accessible from anywhere in the world. A faculty of more than 25 experts and thought leaders offer structured curricula in eight-week terms.  Designed to be the equivalent of a Masters-level program, TWI is widely acknowledged to be the premier source of education and training in therapeutic writing and is endorsed by the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy, the standards-setting body in the field of therapeutic writing.

In 2013 she debuted the Journalverse, an online membership community for journal writers and facilitators worldwide.

Since 2002 Kay has been adjunct faculty for the M.A. in Liberal Studies degree program at University of Denver’s University College, teaching both on-line and on-campus versions of a 10-week course, Writing and Healing.

Prior to 2011, she also wrote The Write Way to Wellness: A Workbook for Healing and Change, The Way of the Journal , Mightier Than the Sword and Scribing the Soul.

In 2011 she accepted an invitation to be an editor for a book series on expressive writing. She edited or co-edited a trilogy of collected works:

• Expressive Writing: Foundations of Practice
• Expressive Writing: Classroom and Community 
• Expressive Writing: Counseling and Healthcare 

She also co-authored three workbooks for the series:

• The Teacher’s Journal: A Workbook for Self-Discovery with Marise’ Barreiro 
• The Flourishing Principal: Strategies for Self-Renewal with Rosemary Lohndorf
• Your Brain on Ink: A Workbook on Neuroplasticity and the Journal Ladder with Deborah Ross, LPC 

In an internet poll, Kathleen Adams was listed (with Anne Frank and Anais Nin) as one of the three most significant influences on contemporary journal keeping.