Photography as therapy: see with your own eyes what your process is doing to you

You have started something big. A course of therapy or coaching, rehabilitation after an injury, a change of lifestyle you had been putting off for years. You work hard, week in, week out. And yet something odd is going on: you barely see yourself changing. You look in the same mirror every day, so the change is too slow to notice. Other people do see it. They say you look better, that you smile more, that you stand straighter. But believing it yourself? That is another matter.

That is where photography as therapy can mean an enormous amount. Not instead of your process, but alongside it. An honest photo series at the start and a second series at the end. Two snapshots of the same person, with months of work in between. Lay those two series side by side and you really see what all that work has done to you. In this article I explain how that works, who it is for and how I record it for you with PAUSE, my extended portrait session in Wijchen.

What is photography as therapy, exactly?

Let me set something straight first. I am not a therapist and I do not want to be. When I talk about photography as therapy, I mean photography that supports your therapeutic or physical process and makes it visible. In the literature that is also called therapeutic photography or phototherapy. The idea has been around for decades: images help you look at yourself in a way words cannot manage.

Because that is exactly the point. In a course of treatment you talk a lot, feel a lot and practise a lot. But the result often stays abstract. “I feel better in my own skin” is a feeling. A portrait is evidence. Photography as therapy turns your inner growth into something you can hold, hang up and look back at on the days when things are not going so well. Especially now, with all the attention on mental health and burnout recovery, I see more and more people who want to mark their process in this way. And rightly so.

The baseline: why you want a photo series right at the start

Most people only think about a photo shoot when they are “ready for it”. When they feel better, are slimmer, have more confidence. I understand that, but it means skipping the most valuable moment. The series at the start of your process is your baseline. Without those first photos you will have nothing to lay beside your end result.

And honestly: that first shoot is nerve-racking. You stand in front of a camera at a moment when you may feel tired, uncertain or vulnerable. But that is exactly why the portrait is so valuable. It shows where you have come from. Not ugly, not pitiful, simply truthful. In phototherapy it is not about your best side, it is about your real side. And believe me, you do not have to do anything for that. You only have to be present; I do the rest.

Months later you make the second series. Same photographer, same way of looking, different person. That is the moment when people go quiet. Have your eyes softened? Does your body stand differently, healthier, more relaxed? Do you smile more easily? Do you look into the camera with a confidence that was not there before? You do not see that in the mirror. You see it in two photo series side by side.

What the camera sees and you stopped noticing long ago

I have been photographing people for years, in my studio and on location. What strikes me again and again: the camera records things we no longer notice ourselves. The tension in a jawline. Shoulders held a fraction too high. A smile that does not reach the eyes. But the opposite as well: calm in a gaze, an open posture, someone who dares to take up space.

That is why therapeutic photography works so well alongside a course of treatment. Your therapist or coach works on the inside. I record the outside, and that outside tells you far more about the inside than you would think. You can read more about how I look at people and work on my page about portrait photography in my studio in Wijchen. The heart of it is always the same: time, calm and no judgement.

You may be thinking: but I am not photogenic at all. Then you are in good company, because almost everyone who walks in here says that. Photography as therapy does not ask you to be photogenic. It only asks for honesty, and you already have that in you. My experience is that the people who never find themselves attractive in photos are the ones most moved by what comes out of a session like this. Because for the first time they do not see a posed version of themselves, but themselves.

Photography as therapy in physical processes

Up to now I have mostly talked about mental processes, but photography as therapy works just as well with physical ones. Think of rehabilitation after an operation or an accident. Of a course with a dietician or lifestyle coach. Of someone recovering from an illness and learning to trust their body again. Of a year of training for one sporting dream.

With physical processes the temptation is to look only at numbers. Kilos, centimetres, recovery times. All useful, but numbers do not tell you how you stand. A photo series does. I have photographed people who after a hard year did not so much have a different body as a different bearing. Prouder. Steadier. More at home in themselves. That is the real result of such a process, and it deserves to be recorded.

And there are surely more processes this suits. Grieving. Giving up drink. The move into a new phase of life. Recovery after burnout. Wherever someone is consciously working on themselves, a photo series at the start and the end can make the difference visible. Not sure whether your own process lends itself to this? Do ask via my contact page, or send me a DM on Instagram, and I will think it through with you.

How a PAUSE session works during your process

How do I go about photography during such a personal process? That is what I developed PAUSE for. Not a quick half hour shoot, but an extended portrait session of half a day in my studio in Wijchen. We do not start by photographing. We start with a good conversation, without hurry and without judgement. Only when I notice you settling, growing calmer and more yourself, do I pick up the camera.

That may sound soft, but it is precisely why this approach works for people in the middle of a process. You do not have to perform for my camera. You do not have to show your best side. You are under no obligation. The result is a series of at least ten black and white portraits, pure and minimally edited. Not a smoothed-out version of you, but you as you really stand at that moment. Exactly what you need as a baseline, or as the closing note of your process.

Do you work as a therapist, coach, physiotherapist or lifestyle counsellor and see something in this for your clients? Then I would be glad to talk to you as well. A photo series as a fixed part of a programme gives your clients something tangible, and gives you a fine way of making growth something you can talk about.

The after-shoot: deliberately reasonably priced

Then the honest story about money. A course of treatment costs something. Therapy, rehabilitation or coaching asks for a considerable investment, in time and in euros. I do not think the photo series that rounds off your growth should come on top of that at full price. So for the second session, the after-shoot at the end of your process, I make a reasonable, separate price. The process has already cost enough. Finishing it should not be a barrier, because it is that second series that completes the story.

In practice: you book a full PAUSE session at the start of your process. When you are ready for the after-shoot, we agree a suitable amount for that second series together. That way you know where you stand in advance, and the price never has to be the reason not to record your change.

What you get back is more than two fine photo series. It is a document of your growth. I know few things as motivating as seeing your own progress in black and white, literally in this case. Hang those two portraits side by side and you have a daily reminder of what you have been through and what you have achieved. That is the power of phototherapy in practice: not a vague feeling, but visible evidence.

Start at the start: record where you are now

Are you at the start of a process, or in the middle of one? Then this is the moment. Not later, when you are “ready for it”, but now. In six months or a year you will want to be able to look back and see how much has changed. In your eyes, your bearing, your smile. Phototherapy in this form is not a luxury, it is a way of taking your own growth seriously.

I am certain I can record it. The doubt at the start and the strength at the end. Book your first session via photography as therapy with PAUSE or first get in touch if you have questions. Then we will have coffee, talk about your process and plan that first series. You do the work. I make sure you can see what it has brought you.

Get in touch directly?
+31626326316
@michielheijmans
mail@michielheijmans.com

All portraits with this article were shot in PAUSE sessions after a good conversation; those sessions were not connected to therapy. Your photos remain your photos, and we do not shoot for my portfolio.