The Techniques of PhotoTherapy

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Photo-Projectives

What is the story behind each of these pictures below? Why was it taken? What thoughts, feelings, or memories come to mind in response to seeing it? What might its voice say or ask if it could speak? What message, secret, or information might it hold? What does it remind you of in your own life?

To read what others have said about each picture, please click on it;
to add your own comments, send them to the PhotoTherapy Centre for consideration.

The Interface Between People and Photos

       Much like viewing the world through sunglasses whose effects are so familiar that they aren't noticed any longer (until removed), people see the world around them through similar layers of unconscious "lenses" that automatically filter everything they encounter, including their own perceptions, thoughts, and feelings -- even while they remain totally unaware of such things!

       What a person notices around them (or in photographs) is always viewed from within the context of everything else that has happened to them up to that moment of looking. Thus, if therapists can find out more about the reasons why their clients respond to (or take) a photograph a certain way, this will provide very useful information about their deeper unconscious values and related expectations.

       Viewing a photograph also usually results in some sort of emotional reaction, even if only that the picture appears uninteresting or confusing. People look at a photograph (someone else's representation of something important) and take their own meaning from it (which may well be a different message than the photographer intended!). Therefore, as viewers try to figure out what a photo is about, they actually construct its meaning while doing so.

       In this way, the unconscious "map" people use to make sense of things inside their mind is built by their own background family and cultural background, as well as their individual experiences up to that moment in time. And since these things frame all the filters they perceive and define the world through, their inner experience of a photograph is actually the only version of it that they will ever be able to know or remember.

       The consequence of this is very truly "What you see is what you get" -- if people don't notice something (even if others do), it is simply not there for them -- or, it's there, but not important enough to have enough meaning worth paying attention to.

       But viewers rarely realize that the story "found" in a certain photograph is actually selectively-projected by them, based on their own unique interpretation of what its visual surface details mean. And they are often equally surprised to learn that others can see this same photo very differently, not realizing that its truth is always only relative to who is looking. People always project meaning onto a photograph -- because there is no other way to encounter one!

       And this is true not just for random general-media photo-images like magazine pictures or postcards but also for those informal snapshots that record and narrate people's own ordinary daily lives. Even familiar personal photos will never be interpreted exactly the same way by different viewers, even those who appear in these photos themselves.

       Projective PhotoTherapy techniques are an ideal way for clients to safely encounter their own personal, societal, familial, class, cultural, and other "filters" without being consequently devalued, demeaned, disempowered or judged by others whose own filters are different. In therapeutic sessions, where clarity of communication is particularly important, it can help clients to realize that their own particular way of interpreting the world, or the actions of others, is not the only way possible.

       Once people can accept that many people can view a single photograph quite differently, yet all be correct (each for themselves), then hopefully they can begin to understand that this process of selective perception also happens in all their interactions every day. Hopefully they can then also begin to realize how many actions and feelings they blame on others are instead based on their own personal constructs and projections, rather than on some externally-objective reality that exists "out there" apart from them.

       Only from inside can change be initiated; only from realizing that there's more than one way to see their situation will clients find that it might be helpful to consider it from another perspective. In order to help clients make desired changes (particularly those from minority or non-mainstream culture, disenfranchised class or race, or other different realities), therapists must first be able to see the world through that client's own eyes and discover the unique reality filters that selectively determine special meanings to them, even though these may not always be evident to the therapist.

How This Technique Works

       Because the photo-projective PhotoTherapy process is located more in the abstract space between any photo and its maker or viewer, rather than in any specific kind of tangible photograph, this technique actually underlies all rest. It is both part of, yet separate from, the other four techniques -- and thus must be taught independently, and preferably first.

       In projective PhotoTherapy work, clients are encouraged to recognize how they uniquely de-construct (and re-construct) the meaning of any photograph while trying to figure it out. Trying to become more aware of what happens while they are doing this will help them get a better picture of their own unconscious processes.

       For example, a photo might remind them of something, someone, or some place in their own life; it might trigger memories or feelings in association with the visual stimulus; it might result in the discovery of additional information or unanswered questions that get pulled to conscious awareness by being unexpectedly brought to mind.

       This will happen whether clients are viewing their own snapshots and albums, or those taken by other people (including photos that their therapist has on view!). The point is that, therapeutically, any photograph can be worked with as a "beginning" rather than a finished product, and as a stimulus or catalyst for encouraging clients' projections of meaning and emotional valence upon it as a means of uncovering what is deep inside them.

       Since there can be no wrong way to look at, or respond to, any photo image, there can be no wrong answers to be judged on. Right and wrong become purely relative terms as photo-responses are accepted for their content rather than their correctness. Therapists pay attention not only to clients' actual photo-responses but also to the underlying reasons why these answers arise. Since every interpretation is correct for the person giving it, this technique can be an effective tool for aiding self-awareness and self-empowerment, especially with clients long accustomed to having their perceptions devalued or self-doubted.

       For example*, the client could be asked to select a photo and, after studying it for a while, engage in dialogue with it, answering things such as: "What is the story of this photograph?", "How did it come to be taken?", "What thoughts, feelings, or memories come to mind as you look at it?", "Why do you think the photographer took it, and were they satisfied with the result?", "What might you title this photo?", "If it could speak, what might it say or ask?", "What messages or secrets might it hold?", and so forth.

       Of course, what clients answer to such photo-based questions can certainly contribute to better understanding of how they think and feel, but probably more therapeutically useful will be their reflections about how they knew these were the answers in the first place -- the "why" of their answer revealing more about them than the "what" they first replied with.

       Since the meaning of any snapshot depends more on what it is about emotionally, than what it is of visually, it should be no surprise that photographs will often trigger deep memories and 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.

* These questions are samples given only to illustrate the kinds that therapists might ask clients when using this technique. Feel free to try them out yourself with your own personal photos, but unless you are professionally trained in counseling, please do not use them with other people, as the results could be harmful.

•   •   •

       As with the other four PhotoTherapy techniques, self-portraits can be worked with either on their own or in combination with other kinds of client photographs, as well as in combination with expressive arts media and other appropriated imagery for additional therapeutic enhancement.

See examples, more photos illustrating this technique,
and personal anecdotes sent in by visitors to this site.

An Example

       "A particular photograph "called" to me and so I picked it up to look at. It is a photo of someone looking out of a broken window. In the reflection of the window is trees. The walls that the window is attached to are steel with rivets in them. My reflections: Is it a train? A building? A prison? It made me in some ways think of the men I worked with in the prison environment. They were far away from home and even though there were trees around them (it was a Native justice system using traditional healing environments and methods), they were none-the-less in prison.

       "Those are aside thoughts. I knew that I chose the photo because it said something about me and not about someone else. I just wasn't sure what it said. I had to sit with it for quite a while to try to understand what it meant.

       "The face in the window looked tired, and that was how I feel. I have been in school for ten years now, and I am just tired. Tired of the constant struggle for money, time, and sanity. Tired of having to constantly fight for what I believe in. And... well... just tired. I have not had any sort of vacation in 7 years.

       "Why the broken window? And where is the person? I felt the person was on a train that was like a prison. They are going somewhere but they can't get off the train until it stops (like my school experience). The only connection they have to the outside world is through the broken window (my occasional glimpses at life ... walking in the park, going for coffee with friends, visiting people).

       "The person is not miserable. Just tired. They know that they have to stay on the train and they won't get off until they get to the end of the ride, which may be years and years away. That's how I feel.

       "I had no plans of staying in school this long. I'm not an academic at heart. I wanted to get an art degree, get more skills and maybe write children's books. Here I am ten years later sitting on the same train.

       "I have almost forgotten what it is like to live in a world that is not full of so many isolating feelings and tasks like writing (the academic kind, not the creative kind), marks (grades totally perplex and freeze me), the coldness of certain professors (if people keep you at a distance they can keep the hierarchy in place), and the lack of extended periods of being in a relaxing and natural setting to just let my thoughts go.

       "As I look back on the image, I could say that I feel somewhat suffocated and constrained. I can see the trees, but I can't touch them. I can see outside of this train-prison, but I can't get off until the ride is over.

       "I could get off if I wanted to, but then I wouldn't be where I need to be. I need to get off in the right place, so I have to suffer this isolating ride. I found this quite enlightening and sad at the same time. Because after all, the train ride goes on for some time still."

More Photos

Personal Anecdotes*

* If you want to submit your own personal anecdote to this page, send it to the PhotoTherapy Centre for consideration.

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