My process

Day 1: Survey
Days 2-3: Therapy
Days 4-10: Zine

Day 1: Survey

Create a new doc for this month, then answer the survey questions in order. Let go. This isn't the zine, it's my doc for exploration. Short answers are okay too; sometimes you do the bare minimum to get this done.

Review answers and take notes. The first-time-ever, you'll probably go over a lot of history of the things you're dealing with, which makes sense as something you'd do in your first ever therapy appointment.

Go and do something else for a while. I go grocery shopping, usually. It's difficult to focus on anything BUT grocery shopping, so my mind gets a good break from it.

Read your notes and reflect. Write about: how things make you feel, negative/positive impacts, epiphanies or things that seem weird, what makes you feel shame, etc.

Review the list again to add the following: (a) Facts, (b) How I would rather feel, and (c) What would get me there (even if it never happens).
- Even if you're not in total control of the situation, this may help you figure out what you need. Then maybe you can find a good compromise that gets you 20% of the way there?
- If needed, search for tips or find advice online and take notes. The strategies page provides some links and help with self-therapy strategies.

Sleep on it. This is an integral part of the process and guess what? You'll do it again.

Days 2-3: Therapy

This doesn't have to be the next day on the calendar. Might be a day or two after. Today will be a lot of work!

In your journal, write out the survey questions and answer them again for today. Compare how you felt between the last session and today.

Pick up to 3 topics that you want to deep dive into this month. For each:
- Write out all your notes and thoughts about it, but measure your reaction. If you find you're getting super angry or upset, take a break.
- Try to illustrate the ideas visually (or at least a few of them, if not all). Think of the ways you might illustrate this concept. This can mean literally anything. Flowcharts, venn diagrams, the kind of stuff you do for work... interpretive art, make a color palette for your emotions, portraits of people you hate, whatever. (I am once again reminding you of the strategies page.)
- Connect ideas and note patterns
- Have fun with laying it out creatively!

Reflect on your five exploration topics. In the survey, you got five topics to explore every month so you could end with a progression of ideas over time. In my zine season, I addressed gender identity, shout outs, creative things, home/life projects, and seasonal reflection in every issue.

Draw zine cover & close out. I suppose you could do the zine cover at any time, but I do it here to close out all of this therapy with something creative. It helps me to decompress. I can sometimes successfully retain the spirit of the session in the art.

Days 4-10: Zine

Print anything that needs to be printed before assembly. I'll probably print more stuff later though.

Copy/cut/paste and put the zine together. You can find suggestions for assembling Zine Therapy under Make the zine.

Photocopy, test, finalize! Proof issue to make sure everything looks how I want it and is aligned properly and then I fix stuff that is not quite right.

This section looks short but don't forget you'll have to go through all of your therapy again, sort through what to put in the zine vs not, decide how to lay it out on the page, and then make it. This takes several days for me because my hands have tremors that are made worse by crying, but you may not need this long.