What is PhotoTherapy all about?

I am an Art Therapist. Since an early age, I have loved photography. I actually graduated Fine Arts School with a Black and white photography project! (i'll tell you all about it on a different post). And as funny as it may seem, I only discovered PhotoTherapy a while ago, and just recently started to use it not just as an extension of Art Therapy, but as discipline itself and the results were amazing. 
For anyone practicing Therapy or getting one, this is a must read! 

Below there is a collage of info on the subject, from different pages that explain and present PhotoTherapy's techniques. 
PLEASE NOTE! I am not the original writer of any of this info, rather I literally copy-pasted the info i founded more helpful on the topic, and at the end of the page are the links to the original pages. Enjoy!

What is PhotoTherapy? [1]

 According to Kelly Gauthier ( "Picture Yourself Well") "Photo therapy is a powerful therapeutic process that uses photographs to unlock repressed emotions and break down personal barriers.  It provides an understanding of the choices we have made and an awareness for the impact they have had on our lives. 
Using photographs in therapy presents an opportunity for you to look at your past experiences and see how they have shaped your present conditions.  Whether it is a personal photograph or one that has been provided for, both allow you to see how memories and the emotions you attach to them can interfere with reality. 
Photo therapy helps you recognize the parts of yourself that are missing and the areas of your life that are in need of attention.  Because photographs have a unique ability to speak symbolically, they contribute to the ease and success the individual experiences through therapy". 

Why PhotoTherapy and not Photo-Therapy?

Judy Weiser - founder of the term PhotoTherapy (instead of Photo-therapy)  explained to me that she prefers using the term PhotoTherapy as one word -two capital letters - for it shows the equal power of the two halves.

Watch out! Two main streams ahead!: 

Judy Weiser explains clearly the main difference between the two main streams of PhotoTherapy. I couldn't explain it better, so below are her exact words! [2]

PhotoTherapy techniques  are therapy practices that use people's personal snapshots, family albums, and pictures taken by others (and the feelings, thoughts, and memories these photos evoke) as catalysts to deepen insight and enhance communication during their therapy or counseling  sessions (conducted by trained mental health professionals), in ways not possible using words alone. (Photo Art Therapy is a specialized category of these techniques practiced only by those with additional training in Art Therapy).

     Therapeutic Photography techniques are photographic practices done by people themselves (in situations where the skills of a trained therapist or counselor are not needed -- therefore the rest of this page is only about PhotoTherapy techniques) to increase their own self-knowledge and awareness, improve family and other relationships, activate positive social change and reduce social exclusion, strengthen communities, deepen intercultural relations, reduce conflict, bring attention to issues of social injustice, sharpen visual literacy skills, enhance education, promote well-being, expand qualitative research and prevention methodologies, and produce other kinds of photo-based healing and learning.

Let's get to work! Where do I start? [2]

I found at Judy Weiser's web page, the PhotoTherapy Techniques in Counseling and Therapy,  great PhotoTherapy techniques. Quoting her exacts words: "the therapist's primary role is to encourage and support clients' own personal discoveries while exploring and interacting with the ordinary personal and family snapshots they view, make, collect, remember, or even only imagine.

The five PhotoTherapy techniques are interrelated and interdependent. 

 Each of the five PhotoTherapy techniques is directly related to the various relationships possible between person and camera (or, person and photograph) -- although in practice, these categories often naturally overlap".

Below, are the techniques presented on Judy Weiser's page (PhotoTherapy Techniques in Counseling and Therapy) and clicking over the links will direct you to her page, were you will find further info about each technique.

	1) Photos which have been taken or created by the client
	2) Photos which have been taken of the client by other people
	3) Self-portraits, which means any kind of photos that clients have made ofthemselves,
	4) Family album and other photo-biographical collections
	5) "Photo-Projectives"

 " Like so many holistic approaches, PhotoTherapy suffers somewhat from having to be taken apart for studying in any step-by-step order, when in fact each technique is partially formed by, and overlaps, several of the others. Therefore, the most effective application of these techniques will occur when they are creatively combined -- because they comprise an integrally interconnected system that is far more useful as a holistic system, than in any linear summation of its parts". Judy Weiser, R.Psych., A.T.R, Founder/Director of the PhotoTherapy Techniques in Counseling and Therapy

PhotoTherapy with...:

Children [1]

In her web page of PhotoTherapy - "Picture Yourself Well" - Kelly Gauthier writes that "Photo therapy has proven to be very effective with children experiencing emotional and behavior challenges.  Unlike talk therapy that children often find intimidating, photo therapy offers a visual alternative and a creative outlet that children are innately comfortable with.
Photo therapy is also extremely effective on children with learning disabilities, especially children with ASD, asperger's, and NLD.  It is because these children are visual learners that photo therapy works so well.  The photographs allow these children to create their own language that the rest of us can finally understand.  Because children with autism and asperger's tend to "see" and "hear" things differently then we do, photographs become the missing link and connection.  With the use of photographs we can now fill in the pieces that are missing and decipher between what they see and what we hear, and what they hear and what we see.  Photo therapy unlocks the door to communication between children and their parents, their peers, and more importantly their society. 
By providing children with an alternative form of therapy, they now have a voice from which to speak".  

Anorexia, Bulimia, and other negative body image:

Please check on Ellen Fisher Turk page. Note: Some pictures in this webpage - although strongly moving and professional -  might be disturbing. 

Photo Art Therapy

Once again, Judy Weiser, R.Psych., A.T.R, Founder/Director of the PhotoTherapy Techniques in Counseling and Therapy was of great help on the subject!! Thanks! (I quote her exact words below, to the end of the page!)

      "Photo Art Therapy" is when photos are used as an art medium by therapists who have also been specifically-trained in Art (or Expressive Arts) Therapy to use art-making for its healing benefits. In contrast, PhotoTherapy techniques are a wider professional therapeutic practice that can be done by (and taught to) any kind of mental health professional, including those who have never heard of art therapy.

      The American Art Therapy Association defines Art Therapy as "the therapeutic use of art making, within a professional relationship, by people who experience [problems]... and by people who seek personal development... through creating art and reflecting on the art products and processes". Many art (or expressive arts) therapists have clients create art during sessions ("making art to make sense"). While such activities might involve photographic imagery or image-creating as an art medium during the primary process of therapeutic art-making, this does not fall under the formal definition of PhotoTherapy processitself because "making art [during therapy] using photos" is not an integral component to ordinary PhotoTherapy practice. Instead, those art-based activities require the skills of a therapist specially trained in additional art therapy techniques, to know how to do this properly (and safely).

      This distinction might seem a bit artificial (and even perhaps unnecessary) from an outside viewpoint, but the primary pioneers of PhotoTherapy techniques who came together in 2009 at the "International Symposium of PhotoTherapy and Therapeutic Photography" in Finland came to the complicating but necessary conclusion that it was time to introduce the formalization of this third categorization (though really a sub-specialty of PhotoTherapy in many ways) -- due to having been encountering far too many art therapists not knowing the difference and thus who kept referring to their own field's specialized photo-art-based activities as "PhotoTherapy" techniques when, in fact, this was not true. Therefore the formalization of the category "Photo Art Therapy" was announced during the Opening Plenary Address of this Symposium -- and was welcomed by all art and expressive arts therapists in attendance as a much-welcomed clarification.

      The actual choice of names for this specialty followed the title first used in print by art therapist and Jungian psychologist Irene Corbit in 1992 in her book by the same name (co-authored with art therapist and psychologist Jerry Fryrear). Corbit explained in her book's section "Why Photo Art Therapy", that:

     "The combination of photographs and art work is a powerful tool for enabling and facilitating one in the ever-present challenge of living a more fulfilling life. The Photo Art Therapy activities are primarily visual, and many of the activities also add movement; all include discussion with a therapist, group, or partner... The creative-expressive nature of the activities is one of the most therapeutic qualities... Another advantage is... its multi-modal nature".

      Thus, a key difference that helps to differentiate "Photo Art Therapy" practice from that of "PhotoTherapy" itself, is that art therapists usually have clients create art as an essential component of their therapy sessions (although, of course, each session might be a different proportion of art-making and talking about it):  

    Whereas "art-making during sessions" is very rarely done during "PhotoTherapy" sessions, a "Photo Art Therapy" session simply cannot happen without it (i.e., in Photo Art Therapy practice, if the "art part" is not happening, then the therapy itself is usually not happening -- whereas in PhotoTherapy practice the "art part" is not essential at all, even if it does occasionally happen). PhotoTherapy does fine without any "art part" at all, becausePhotoTherapy is not about art -- not even about photographic art.

      This is the key reason that NO training or skill in photography or photo-art-creating is needed for any kind of mental health professional to learn how to use PhotoTherapy techniques in their therapy practice (and training in Art Therapy techniques is not necessary) -- whereas for using Photo Art Therapy techniques, these things are primary and essential components of the training needed before using.

Sources:

[1] http://pictureyourselfwell.webs.com/phototherapy.htm
[2] http://www.phototherapy-centre.com/five_techniques.htm