Therapy and Photography

2 minute read

What do therapy and photography have in common?

Before becoming a therapist I worked as a professional photographer for 15 years and I’ve found the process of taking beautiful pictures is not dis-similar to the therapeutic one…

When you take a photo the light metre in the camera is looking for the grey, the mid tone between the darkness and the light, ensuring the exposure across the whole picture is balanced.

As a photographer, getting the exposure just right can make the difference between an acceptable photograph, and an extraordinary one.  Cloudy days make for good photography, paradoxically when the light is diffused you get more depth in your picture, the subtleties aren’t overpowered by the light or the shadow.

Similarly our experiences can become fixed or stuck in the extremes of the light or the darkness. Being able to sit in the area in between can often be uncomfortable and painful, but when we can pause and observe we can gain a different more compassionate perspective and move more freely between the darkness and the light.

The therapeutic process or light meter gently explores the shadows and the light to find the subtleties within ourselves. 

We all view the world through our own set of unconscious filters that we’ve created to help us to cope.  Therapy is about developing awareness of the different filters we use and how those filters evolved, we are then free to consciously choose when and how we use them, enabling us to feel more at ease, peaceful and joyful, and to become more aligned with our true purpose and to live a more meaningful life.