My journey as a facilitator at Barcelona Journaling Festival 2025

“Community is created when we write, listen and speak from the heart”
– Ahava Shira

I first heard about the Barcelona Journaling Festival last year, when Marusha Mozolevskaya, one of the co-founders, contacted me about the first edition, which would take place two months later, in November 2024. I loved her energy, and I immediately felt drawn to the festival. I couldn’t attend that first year, but I made a mental note for the following. Fast forward to the beginning of 2025, when the announcement of the second edition of the Barcelona Journaling Festival on 8-9 November 2025 was made, along with an open call to apply to speak, I knew I had to get in!

When I saw that call on socials, I felt a deep pull to participate, not only as an attendee, but also to step into the role of facilitator. The chance to guide a workshop at a gathering of international journalers, writers, coaches and creative practitioners felt both exciting and more than a little daunting.

I applied and submitted my proposal for a workshop around my area of expertise, poetry therapy, and forced myself to forget about it. A few months passed, and I received the happy email saying that I had been accepted to facilitate a workshop.

It wasn’t the first time I had facilitated a big event (I have been participating in conferences and festivals for years, but mostly in my past life as an educator). My last big event took me to Canada in 2019. But then, after that, COVID hit us like a ton of bricks. I changed careers (from language educator to therapeutic writing facilitator and teacher), and the series of lockdowns knocked my confidence down a bit, so facilitating at the Barcelona Journaling festival felt significant. It felt right, but also, it felt scary as hell.

I had two goals with this festival:

1) Connection
2) Experience

Two days after the event, the festival felt like a success for me.
I’d love to share the experience, the learnings, and how you, too, can tap into the magic of journaling or expressive writing at these kinds of events, or at home.

About the Festival

The Barcelona Journaling Festival is described as “the unique international festival of journaling happening in Barcelona”, offering hands-on workshops, inspiring talks and meaningful connections.

This year it was held at the arts & design college in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona, set in a vibrant, beach-proximate area.

Whether you’re a wellness coach, therapist, writer, or journaling enthusiast, the festival aims to offer practical tools and deep reflection, not just theory. It’s not a conference or a summit, but a festival, as the co-founders explicitly announced in the inauguration speech.

In my role as a facilitator, I led the session titled Mapping your way through metaphor, where I invited participants to explore their inner landscapes through guided readings, reflective writing, and artistic map-making, charting personal terrains and giving voice to the places within us that seek exploration and expression. I’ll describe how that unfolded, what stood out and what you can take away, whether or not you attended.

What I did & what happened

The workshop

In the workshop, I guided 25 participants through 2 journaling prompts to set the tone, followed by 2 poems, writing and sharing, and a final map creation. The aim was to tap into our personal geographies and explore how our past may have directed our present paths, and how we can find new ways to chart territories.
I was struck by how one participant used writing to process the loss of her dog, and by how another participant realised she had let only her negative “tracks” be part of her inner landscape.

The atmosphere

The setting of Barcelona does something subtle but powerful: there was time to step into cafes in Poblenou and to connect with people from across the world who share this passion for the written word. That informal time (the coffee chats, the hallway moments) was as rich as the formal sessions.
One of my favourite moments happened before the festival, during the pre-festival speakers’ gathering, when I got to connect with people who “get” my career: people I don’t need to explain what therapeutic writing is or convince them it works, people who love reflection, personal growth, emotional sharing and, of course, writing!

Key Speakers & Workshops (besides mine)

Key Learnings & Insights

Some of the other sessions included:

“Writing Alone Together” by Lynda Monk. The Director of the International Association for Journal Writing is coming to Barcelona all the way from Canada. An inspiring keynote on the power of journaling as both a solitary and shared practice of connection and self-discovery.
The panel about community building with Matt Trinetti, Greta Lietuvninkaite and Marusha Mozolevskaya. 20-minute inspirational & insightful talks by the journaling community builders from across Europe. Meet Marusha Mozolevskaya, founder of Naked Words, Barcelona Journaling Community, Greta Lietuvninkaite, founder of Icelandic journaling circle Write It Out, and Matt Trinetti, co-founder of London Writers’ Salon.
“The Page That Changed My Life: A Journey from Self-Loathing to Self-Compassion” by Amie McNee, writer and founder of Inspired Collective. A few ideas stuck with me about the need to be gentle with ourselves, mother ourselves, and be our own strongest supporter. To quote her: “Fuck normal. I want magic”: words to live by.

Here are some of the deeper insights I took away, both as facilitator and participant:

1. Journaling is not just inward, it's relational

One major takeaway: when we write together, in a group setting, the energy changes. It becomes less about me reflecting on myself and more about us writing into a shared field of curiosity and connection, from Lynda Monk’s invitation to share our journaling responses to the question about what brings us joy with the person next to us, to ugly crying while journaling about what I needed from my parents growing up. Writing in a group makes it so much more powerful than doing it alone.

2. Structure + spontaneity = power

Many assume journaling is “just free writing”. At the festival, I observed that the richest work happened when there was just enough structure (a prompt, a timeframe, a partner to share with) and then space for spontaneity, silence and reflection.

In my workshop, I used a selection of prompts, which always include “write from whatever line you want”.

3. As a facilitator: the role of holding space

From my vantage as a facilitator, I realised how vital the container is: the environment, the prompts, the timing, the invitation to share. And yet, the magic happens when participants feel safe enough to go there — into honesty, vulnerability, surprise.

I felt deep gratitude whenever participants chose to share their writing or insights. It’s hard to do that. It’s deeply generous. I will always understand the participants who keep their writing to themselves; they have my respect and understanding. I’ve been there, done that, but I know that when I shared, I transformed. With every individual sharing, the entire group transforms. Because the magic, like healing, does not happen in isolation, it happens in community when we are witnessed and when we witness.

Reflection & Looking Forward

Facilitating at the Barcelona Journaling Festival was not just another speaking gig, it was a moment of deep personal and professional growth. I came home not just with new ideas for my therapeutic writing work, but with renewed commitment to my own journaling practice.

Going forward, I will continue offering group workshops and circles (this 14th of December starts the “Wintering Writing Circle,” where the writing will be guided by mythic and European folklore figures like the Cailleach), sesiones de escritura terapéutica individuales, and mentoring for professionals who want to bring poetry therapy into their practice.

And I’m looking forward to the next edition of the festival. I hope to see you there.

My heartfelt thanks to the festival organisers, the wonderful participants, my workshop co-leaders and everyone in the journaling community who showed up with pen in hand, heart open. The Barcelona Journaling Festival is more than an event; it’s a community, and I feel happy to belong there.

If you attended too, I’d love to hear your story. Please email me, reach out, share your favourite moment or one journaling question you’re taking away. And if you’re curious about facilitators or how journaling can transform your life or work, feel free to get in touch.

Here’s to many more pages, many more insights, and many more shared journeys.

Let’s write together.