Find Your Joy Here: A Creative Journal to Help Teens Release Sadness and Depression and Find Moments of Happiness Every Day

What brings you joy? In this unique guided journal for teens, teen mental health expert Lisa Schab provides a safe, creative space to help you release sadness and depression, explore what makes you happy, and find glimmers of joy in your life.

Do you ever feel sad, depressed, or even hopeless? Does this feeling of sadness interfere with school, friends, and reaching your goals? If so, you aren’t alone. Between academic pressures, social expectations, changing hormones, and planning for the future, many teens struggle with sadness, depression, and overwhelm. The good news is there are steps you can take to feel better--and this journal is a perfect first step.

Written by a teen mental health expert and grounded in evidence-based psychology, this fun and engaging guided journal offers hands-on and creative tools, activities, and writing practices to help you release feelings of sadness on the page, focus on moments of happiness, and look for those little glimmers that bring purpose, gratitude, and contentment to your life.

This journal is a space for you--to let go of difficult feelings, make your own rules, and discover what joy really means. Your only real guideline is to write for yourself. Why not give it a try?

A special note for clinicians and other professionals: Journaling exercises are a proven-effective adjunct to talk therapy--helping teens bypass defenses, explore feelings in a non-threatening manner, and develop trust in their own coping skills. This journal marks a new addition to the Instant Help Guided Journals for Teens series, which offers evidence-based therapeutic tools in a format teens love.

Lisa M. Schab, LCSW, is a practicing psychotherapist in the greater Chicago, IL, area; and author of twenty self-help books, including The Anxiety Workbook for Teens, The Self-Esteem Workbook for Teens, and the teen guided journals, Put Your Worries Here and Put Your Feelings Here. She has been interviewed as an expert on Milwaukee television stations WTMJ-TV and WISN-TV, by The New York Times, Scholastic Choices magazine, Teen Vogue, Psych Central, and Kate Shannon’s Creative Therapy Umbrella podcast. Schab has authored regular mental health columns for Chicago Parent Magazine and The Sun newspapers. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI).