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Advocates of phototherapy and therapeutic photography have emphasized the effectiveness of creating and viewing photographs as a process of self-insight and personal change (Krauss & Fryrear, 1983; Phillips, 2000; Weiser, 1999). While “phototherapy” involves a professional psychotherapist who encourages clients to work with their personal snapshots within the framework of formal therapy, “therapeutic photography” consists of photo-based activities that are conducted by the individual as a form of self-help (Weiser, 2009). Both endeavors are based on the same assumption: photographic images provide an interpretive media through which the unconscious can express itself more directly than by words alone. Closer to the language of primary process thinking, as in dreams and fantasy, visual images convey underlying thoughts, memories, and emotions while bypassing ego defenses (Suler, 1996). Many forms of art and expressive therapy are based on these same assumptions, although, as Weiser (2009) points out, art therapy involves visual creations constructed from memory and imagination, while phototherapy and therapeutic photography rely on the capture of scenes in the external world.
With the advent of digital photography, the evolution of these therapeutic activities has reached a new stage. Digital photography has not only made it easy for almost anyone to take and share photos, but image editing programs like Photoshop have enabled even laypeople to drastically modify and combine their photographic images in ways never before imagined, which moves therapeutic photography much closer to therapeutic art.
The Internet took the evolution even one step further. It enabled people from all walks of life around the world to share their photographic images with each other, often in ways that encourage self-insight, mutual support, and personal change. As such, the traditional support group and mutual-aid movement, which began in the 1960s as a grass roots phenomenon and then transit