I found completing the activity monitoring time consuming which has made me reflect on what it means to ask clients to complete this as a home assignment. It highlighted the importance of really helping clients understand why they are completing the task, where it fits in the rationale for treatment and how it links to their formulation. In doing this I’d hope to encourage motivation in clients to complete the task as well as exploring any barriers they might have to doing it. I know have a greater understanding of the length of time the task takes.  

Doing the task myself has also highlighted the importance of supporting clients to start the task in session to check their understanding of what they’re doing, as well as problem solve how they might fit in doing the task in their week and how they might remember to do the task. I realised whilst I was completing the activity scheduling it was quite easy to forget about doing it for a couple of days and how this made it harder to remember what I did and how I was feeling at the time. This is helpful that I’m now aware of this so I can support clients in completing their log as soon as possible when it happens so it is fresh in their minds. I also found it very time consuming to do so this is helpful to reflect on in terms of asking clients to do the same thing and how they might find it time consuming and how important it will be to check a client’s motivation beforehand, otherwise without exploring this and offering collaborative problem solving there’s a risk clients won’t do it or start it then stop it.

It was helpful to see in black and white how my mood was across the week and have the opportunity to reflect on how I felt closeness to others and enjoyment in activities. This will be paramount for clients to record and reflect on so they can see in black and white how their activities have an impact on how they feel, and they can see patterns and areas they can change.   

Overall this has been a positive learning experience and helpful to put myself in a clients shoes, whereas previously I thought this task wouldn't have been as time consuming or as much as a learning experience as it has been, I think my appreciation of this task has now increased and I can see it's value to clients.

Completing the diary was a positive experience for me as I can now resonate to patients who maybe feeling apprehensive about monitoring their mood or may struggle to complete.  I can now help them to problem solve around completion and normalise the difficulty of remembering to complete. 

I have many things that I have in place during my week to help me managed symptoms linked to my diagnosis of ADHD and ARFID. But noted that days when I am unable to do these things overwhelm and frustration creep in much more.

For example my weekends tend to be the time I spend focusing on family and connecting with people. Doing the diary helped me see that on the weekend that my son goes to his dads, my mood drops and my motivation to do basic tasks also drops, i find that these are the weekends that paralysis tend to creep in and make things harder.

A positive that i noticed is that i have built a routine of making sure i have some time doing the things that help me feel connected and even when the day is difficult this is so embedded that i am still able to spend time practicing tarot and being at my alter to re-ground.

Physical activity such as pole dance on a Wednesday and Building time for aerial silks practice at home makes a huge difference to how i feel also.

Doing the diary also highlighted the need to continue to work on my food routines as his is a challenge to me and always has been. Fatigue and burnout make this harder to manage but being around people that i trust makes it easier

The first thing I noticed was that it made me more mindful about what I was doing and how it made me feel. This led to me getting an impression about what activities felt more important to me, and where I was focussing most of my energy (mental and physical).

Similarly, on days where I did less, or I engaged in tasks with less purpose, I found that I felt worse as a result, this led to me reflecting more on what changes I can make in future. I also noticed that "filler activities", while feeling good initially, were a drain on my mood - being on my phone is the main example here.

Finally, I did struggle to remember to record activities and complete the diary, especially initially, which was a helpful experience for working with clients. I feel more equipped to have conversations with clients about how to problem solve some of the problems which they may encounter when completing this activity.

I did most of my tracking in the evenings, as I was generally either too busy in the day or did not notice the hour change.

I found it hard to dedicate time to the diary. Remembered that we had it as homework but procrastinated on starting it. Which has reminded me about the importance of making homework accessible and easy to access.

Reflections on my diary include the lack of enjoyable activities solely for myself currently. It will be hard for me to fit in much enjoyable activity in the near future, which is a little disheartening. So I believe it will be important to take the time to discuss client’s feelings and concerns when reviewing the diary.