Photovoice as a psychosocial intervention for survivors of human trafficking and gender-based violence

ABSTRACT

This study explores the psychosocial impact of photovoice participation among survivors of human trafficking and gender-based violence. Photovoice is a community-based participatory research (CBPR) method grounded in empowerment theory, feminist theory, and documentary photography. While survivors, practitioners, and scholars have increasingly called for survivors to co-produce research pertaining to their own experiences, limited research has explored the impact and the potential of photovoice participation with this population. This article presents findings from a photovoice study with survivors of human trafficking and gender-based violence in the Philippines (n = 34). Five themes emerged from a thematic analysis exploring the psychosocial impact of photovoice participation: enhanced self-efficacy, inspiration, sense of belonging, bravery, and overcoming shame. The use of photography provided opportunities for survivors to share about their experiences with peers in an emotionally safe manner. Photovoice shows promise as a psychosocial intervention that can help survivors to construct new self and collective narratives, build autonomy, and strengthen supportive community. Findings suggest that photovoice can serve both as a research method and a psychosocial intervention for survivors, holding particular promise for low-resource contexts in which psychosocial interventions are limited.

KEYWORDS:

• Human trafficking
• gender-based violence
• photovoice
• community-based participatory research
• psychosocial intervention
• Philippines

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The classification as a survivor of human trafficking or gender-based violence was based upon past exploitation.

2. All names reported in the manuscript are pseudonyms. Study participants selected their own pseudonyms.