Photo Therapy provides a creative way of expressing thoughts and feelings.

Whether it’s bringing family photos or taking a specific image for sharing how you feel. Photo Therapy can help externalise the ‘problem’ or providing some distance as it’s on the photograph rather than all internally felt. It can also help when words are difficult to find or a creative option is preferrable. It doesn’t need to be a professional quality photograph as it’s the meaning to the photo taker which is at the heart of this method.

Therapeutic Photography and Photo Therapy use the same techniques but the difference is the latter is guided by a trained therapist, therefore, able to go deeper or work with more challenging emotions and experiences.

Photography is also a great mindfulness activity; focusing on the here-and-now of what to photograph, how it looks in the viewfinder and then clicking the button.

I found photography to be therapeutic, years before I’d heard of Therapeutic Photography or Photo Therapy. Below are examples of mine when I needed to process experiences, but photos can be taken of anything and professional skills are irrelevant!