Therapeutic Photography

Book excerpt: Therapeutic photography is an increasingly popular approach for increasing self-esteem, resilience and self-reliance in a wide range of people, including those with dementia, autism or mental health problems, school children and offenders. This book provides practical guidance on delivering therapeutic photography interventions and introduces the theory underpinning the approach. Each chapter describes a different element of therapeutic photography, including storytelling through photographs to discuss relationships and the use of self-portraits and selfies to explore identity. Exercises, reflection points and examples are provided throughout and a detailed case study shows the approaches described in the book used with a group of young adults on the autism spectrum. An adaptable programme is also included in the appendix.