Therapeutic Photography:

Photo-Projective Techniques – An Autoethnographic Case Study

"It has been suggested that art may tell us more about psychology than psychology could ever tell us about art, so

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perhaps photography may uniquely inform us about psychology."

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Wheeler (2009)

"The focus is photography as communication - it is not about photographic techniques…. one need not be a photographer to do it. No technical expertise with cameras or photography is necessary. Any camera will do.“

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Cluff (2016)

Neil Gibson:

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Worked in Social Work and Criminal Justice System

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Researcher of Therapeutic photography for 9 years to present

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Developed ‘world first’ Therapeutic Photography Post-Graduate CPD Course

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(2018)

Judy Weiser:

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Psychologist, Art Therapist, Consultant, Lecturer and Teacher

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One of the earliest pioneers of PhotoTherapy and Therapeutic Photography

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Author of influential book, ‘PhotoTherapy Techniques’ (1993)

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Study: Through the windows of the soul: A pilot study using photography to enhance meaning in life

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Steger (2013)

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Propositioned a new minimal photographic intervention technique involving 86 university students to take 9-12 photographs with a given brief titled, "Things that make your life feel meaningful" that they argue, "...offers rich, deeply personal information as a topic for exploration within therapy."

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Their results showed that,

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"Significant within-person improvements in levels of meaning in life, life satisfaction, and positive affect were observed following the intervention."

How even ‘minimal photographic interventions can have a positive impact:

Two Approaches:

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Therapeutic Photography

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And

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Photo Therapy

Therapeutic Photography

Photography ‘AS’ therapy ‘OUTSIDE’ of therapy�

• Self initiated or group work - photo-based activities outside of therapy – a personal process

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• Generally non-directive and unstructured – can be used in groups but the key is there is no therapist or counsellor involved in the process

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• No prior knowledge or application of Photographic or Therapeutic theory required

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Although Gibson writes that an in-depth knowledge of Psychodynamic theory is not essential here, “…an awareness is very useful"

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• To be considered therapeutic rather than a ‘hobby’ – the goal should be to produce positive change through personal insight

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Weiser warns a lack of a “…protective counselling framework in place with which to immediately contain and resolve any emotional consequences that might erupt…”

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Consequently…

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"...doing Therapeutic Photography by oneself... may precipitate the need for a therapist to help ‘finish’ what has come to light during activities that took place without one!"

Example of Therapeutic Photography using the ‘Photo Voice Technique’

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Study: A Snapshot Of My Life: Photovoice Photography Project

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Schmid et al (2012)

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Recognized a need to address the psychological wellbeing of patient's and families in a Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. Patients between the ages of 5 and 23 photographed their lives in hospital and they concluded, "As a result of the project, a deeper understanding of the emotional impact bone marrow transplant and subsequent treatment has on patients was gained. In addition, the therapeutic relationship between social worker and patient was positively impacted and the medical team gained insight into the psychological impact of treatment."

Photo Therapy

Photography ‘WITHIN’ therapy�

• With a qualified therapist / counsellor providing guidance and support – a formal process

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• More directive (not entirely) and structured – can be given as homework assignments

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• Photographic theory not required by the therapist / counsellor – (although potentially helpful)

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• Looking for repeated visual themes, patterns and symbolic content

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• Therapists / counsellor will look for recognize emotional reactions and pay attention to the client feelings that they may or may not be consciously aware of

Goals:

• Self-efficacy and self-esteem

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Unlike traditional art created within a therapy room – clients have the power to choose which pictures to take, when, where and what to share.

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Through building trust – confidence can grow

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Positive feedback received can build self-esteem and self-efficacy helping to maintain change

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• Empowerment and resilience

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Empowerment - developed by encouraging client in decision making processes (e.g., choosing a theme)

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Resilience - developed by encouraging reflection

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The Main 5 Photo Therapy Techniques:

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Can also be explored in ‘Therapeutic Therapy’

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• Photos taken by clients:

Looking for patterns, themes, symbols, metaphors - bringing these into client awareness

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• Photos taken by clients of other people

Visual Identify – Perceptions of Self – how clients present themselves to the world

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• Photographs of self-portraits

The client has full control in the photo making process

Self-exploration without being watched or judged

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• Exploration of client family albums (or other biographical albums)

Exploring themes of Family, Home and Identity

Helps to explore meanings in life

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• Photo-Projective Interactions

• Any photograph can be used

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• How individual meanings are created from a photograph during the process of looking at them – deconstructing the meaning within a photograph to understand why the clients finds something emotional about it

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• The emotional content of the photograph is key – not the visual content

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• How visual stimuli can result in the discovery or additional information becoming pulled into conscious awareness

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• "The unconscious map people use to make sense of things… is formed by a combination of their own personal, familial, cultural, and societal backgrounds, as well as everything they have thought, felt, and experienced up until that moment in time when they are encountering something (or even a photograph of something).“

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• There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ – it’s entirely individual – therefore there is no judgement

"...it should be no surprise that photographs will often trigger deep memories and evoke strong feelings, along with related information that has long been buried from conscious recall. Though people rarely stop to think about why and how this happens, this is the main focus and purpose of photo-projective work.“

Weiser (2015) ‘Clients' Photo-Projective Interactions’

Study: The Clinical Use of Photography: A Single Case, Multi-method Study of the Therapeutic Process – (Used Spectro-Cards)

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Saita et al (2014)

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Concluded that, “… the human mind does not function using only a verbal code” and,

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"...the use of Spectro Cards in clinical practice may activate a different and more immediate language, with a stronger symbolic and emotional value, and thus promote clinical improvement. Any kind of photography is able to transmit the concrete and objective reality of the content that is represented (denotative level); however, it engages other symbolic and subjective meanings, given that images are able to stimulate new associations and even very intense emotional reactions (connotative level)."

(Initially Intended) Method:

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• Choose a photograph or take a new one
• Apply the Photo-Projective Technique
• Reflection

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(Actual) Method:

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• Chose a photograph and then ‘processed it’
• (Wanted to apply text) – Considered ‘cultural projections’ and created a video using the photograph instead
• Created a ‘mind-map’ (after reading Weiser’s comment re: the ‘Unconscious Map’ and as a visual exploration / deconstruction of the video)
• Explored ‘signposts’ within projections
• Then began Reflection

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Why choose my own? – Why not use Specrto-Cards?��A) - it’s mine!

(I made it, it belongs to me, and it represents me)

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Why Photography?

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B) - it’s grounded in something close to reality

(Kitchen Sink Realism)

Ulla Halkola: Spectro Cards – Photo-Projective Technique developed in 2013

• Choosing a photograph… flicking through recent archives

I wanted to apply text but had difficulty thinking of something to write.

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Began to feel frustrated with myself over this.

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I felt something in the image but couldn’t express it in words, all I had in my head were pictures, colours, sounds, memories, experiences and emotions.

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But no words.

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I keep trying with words, but I get incredibly annoyed!

Forget the text and move on…

…but how do I ‘project’ and ‘reflect’ without words?

I had to think more in depth about ‘what’ I was projecting and ‘how’

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I came to realize my initial ‘projections’ are ‘cultural references’

Projected ‘cultural references’ were a combination of:

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• Scenes from films or games
• Music from films or games
• Or other snippets of audio from Music, Films, Games, and TV shows.

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So… How can I ‘add in’ these cultural references?

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So, I chose to make a video, using the photograph as a ‘base’ in which to ‘house’ these cultural projections.

I set myself some rules.

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1 – No longer than 30 seconds (to stop myself from overloading with text)

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More Importantly…

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2) – Focused on what I ‘projected’ onto the image and tried to ‘add’ these into my ‘construction’

The Final:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb7qgUTPRfA

Video available to view at:

I created the video relatively quickly, trying to just ‘go with the flow’ of where my mind went without intention of over thinking anything, just letting myself ‘be creative’

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Now to ‘Deconstruct’ my own ‘Construction’

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I decided to ‘visualize’ this by creating a ‘mind map’, exploring the deeper meanings of the ‘cultural references’ that I’d placed into the images.

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Was genuinely amazed by this scene, and wonder how I experienced this as a child…

Perhaps it was more impactful than I remember?

I stayed with this ‘deconstructed mind map’ for a while and felt a bit overwhelmed by it. Not really knowing how to respond to it and struggling to find the words to ‘reflect’ on it. The anxiety I felt whilst writing some of it made me feel like locking it away and turning my back on it.

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I began re-reading Roland Bathes theory on photography and came up with the idea of ‘deconstructing’ each element into ‘sign-posts’ as an aid to reflection.

Signpost to:

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Directly – Childhood / Education

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Indirectly - Identity / Belonging

The Photograph itself.

Projection - Audio

Audio as signpost to:

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• Childhood
• Education
• Identity

Connects to the photograph as signpost to:

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• Childhood
• Education

Projection - Audio

Audio as signpost to:-

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• Emotion – Sadness / Loneliness

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Connects to a signpost ‘outside’ of the image

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• Film – ‘The Never Ending Story’

Projection - Film Scene

‘The Never-Ending Story’

Film as signpost to:

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• Childhood
• Fear - Death / Dying
• The beginnings of depression?

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Connects to the signpost of:

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• Thunder

Projection - Audio – ‘Shhh’ Sound Effect

Audio as signpost to:

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• Soothing
• Childhood

I now had 3 sets of data to use for reflection:�

• 1 – The Final Video

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• 2 – The ‘Mind Map’

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• 3 – The ‘Signposts’

Written Reflection Summary:

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Gender:

• School - first place awareness of the differences between boys and girls became clear to me
• I call these, 'noticings' - which would become 'pangs' - ‘injustice’? …more annoyance really
• Feeling forced to participate in gender specific P.E. games - annoyed and frustrated

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Shhh Sound:

• The 'Shhh' sound was explored - perhaps something calming / relaxing
• Reminded me of Mother comforting me
• self-soothing? – made me think of using drugs as an adult
• Was the construction a 'reimagining’ of events?
• To 'keep quiet', 'silent', 'shut up' or... 'keep a secret’ – The ‘keeping a secret’ thing seemed to be the source of anxiety

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Comedy:

• Began to feeling something comical in it all
• Managing / coping with feelings by using humor?
• Maybe that’s my way of trying to ‘move on' from those thoughts and feelings?
• But recognized a sort of flippant disregard towards them - 'yeah whatever'
• Explored some of the truth of that - "it is really true?" – Would I have done all this if that was the case?

Lying in school:

• Led me to consider experiences of lying in school
• Lying about how bad my eyesight was - allowed me to manipulate what 'I' wanted to do
• isolated myself from P.E.
• but felt bad sat on the sidelines watching everyone else playing and wanting to join in
• but felt committed to the lying which would only worsen and continue throughout high school

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Symbolism from films:

• Explored some possibilities for why I was drawn to 'The Never-Ending Story'
• Perhaps the beginnings of a depression?

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Photographing The School:

• Experience of photographing around the school - reminded me that my memories don't age, but I do – ‘What was I even doing back there?’ – ‘Grow up already!!!’

The ‘Deeper Meaning’ / ‘Emotional Content’ within the Photograph

• Gender – annoyed, frustrated in school (a source of anger?)

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• Self Soothing? – Later used drugs (attempts to quieten anger?)

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• Keeping Secrets? – Source of anxiety (possible source of anger?)

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• Lying / Manipulation (lying to myself? Using humor as defence?)

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• Isolation – (Forced to continue lying, grows out of control)

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• Possible beginnings of Depression

Through written reflection, I interpret something that suggests a pattern of anger

25th December 1996 - Letter from Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

On his own Daniel is a delightful and most articulate boy. He was able to give a clear account of the difficulties that he has in the school situation because of his eyesight. He feels very angry at some of the incident in the past and the taunts that he has received, but he does not seem to have any bitterness. In his talk and thoughts, he showed normality in flow, form and content. His mood was euthymic today, but there are days when he becomes very low, which happen frequently. He does have suicidal thoughts and he has dreams in which his fears haunt him. He does have a very real fear of being shot or killed in the end because he is incapable of protecting himself.

Reviewing the experience of the process:

• Enjoyed ‘searching’, ‘discovering’, ‘creating’, ‘deconstructing’

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• Although I got annoyed and irritated, I pushed myself and feel accomplished

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• Feel I’ve learnt something about myself

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• Can see the potential ‘danger’ for practicing projection techniques like this outside of therapy: e.g. anxiety and exploring difficult stuff

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• Would potentially need further exploration in therapy – searching for patterns of responses and patterns of symbolic representations

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• Why choose my own photograph?

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“….Because it's mine and no one can take that away from me.“ why is that so important?

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• Why is ‘reality’ important? – “…because it’s MY reality and I own it!”

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• Why so 'bothered' by words? “…because I feel too boundaried by them.“ “…done with them.”

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• Why choose something representing ‘childhood’? – something unresolved? – part of childhood I’ve never understood – always wanting to ‘run away’

Reviewing the experience of the process:

Questions I asked myself:

Potential Bias:

• Hold a degree in Fine Art Photography

(Obviously would choose photography, but passionate about it and interested in phototherapy)

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• Experience of writing and critiquing photographs and photography as a medium

(Although guided by photographic theory and practice – phenomenological exploration not encouraged)

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• Narcissistic and selfish

(Recognize this, although if some experiences were ‘zoned in on’ might provide wider cultural relevance e.g. children who lie / gender - My experience is also connected to others but aware of ethical implications)

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• Issues of ‘reliability’ and ‘validity’ (as per Wieser p.324)

(Readers must accept what is presented is a true representation and reflection - presentation would need expanding upon to evidence patterns)

• Could argue I chose something that I felt relatively ‘comfortable’ and ‘safe’ to explore in more depth

(Have applied these same techniques to more images, but not comfortable discussing these in greater detail)

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As example…