Photo-Art-Therapy

This is my most treasured camera, that I spent many years carrying and using. This

camera, along with an Olympus Trip and an old enlarger, were the tools the young people

used to undertake therapeutic photography with me, in a therapeutic community. This

activity provided the nudge to train as an Art Therapist.

As a child I had used the Canon's predecessor, a Russian Zenith B, to create constructed

images on cheap Eastern European slide film. I was amazed at how unquestioningly

adults would accept photographs as being 'OF' something 'REAL'. For me, with poor

eyesight, the photographs I took mediated the only way I ever saw a world both sharp and

made up of straight lines. Before photography I had a choice of 2 worlds, a blurred one or

one barrel distorted by strong spectacle lenses.

I worked for a time in that therapeutic community, using therapeutic photography, in

camera and darkroom, with adolescents to explore their world with them. The strength of

staff and residents' responses to these images, and to other art making, led me to apply to

train as an Art Therapist. The curator of this exhibition interviewed me and was surprised

to be presented with a portfolio of photographs. I funded myself to train by resuming

working as a freelance photographer during my training.

While training and in my first job after qualifying, I participated in family therapy and

realised the importance of images in the narratives we construct around our histories.

Photo-Art-Therapy has been a thread woven into my practice throughout. Initially

manipulating Polaroid images, photocopies, and creating collages with scissors and glue

were the primary photographic contributions. More recently digital devices from Nintendo

DSi to smart-phones have created any photographic dimensions of art psychotherapy

practice. Very few clients use photography and then only occasionally in sessions, but

often make images between sessions that will serve as catalysts to process in the hour in

the art therapy room.

The space in the art room may be filled with messy poster paint, glue, balsa wood, chalk

and oil pastels, but the visual lives of many people now are dominated by tiny screens.

The opportunity to expand beyond the phone-frame is rare. For many, there is a struggle

to contain such unstructured and unlimiting space, which we, as Art Psychotherapists can

offer. A century after the invention of the Kodak Brownie, the democratisation of smartphone

photography and online galleries may further inhibit people from depth of

engagement with images.

Now the Art Therapist has an extra dimension to their practice when words are not

enough.

Mark Wheeler has been an Art Therapist for over 25 years, working in Child & Family Therapy NHS (CAMHS) and a small private practice. Mark undertakes direct work with individuals, families and groups, as well as offering clinical supervision to many mental health professions. Mark engages people in conversations about and with their images. These may include drawings, paintings, sculptures as well as family photographs. Mark also facilitates workshops and training events. Mark arrived in the arts therapies via photography, becoming interested in the psychological dimensions of making and viewing images.