Talking Pictures Therapy as Brief Therapy in a School Setting

Abstract

This article presents talking pictures therapy as an approach to brief therapy, in which photographs are used in brief psychotherapy and counseling with the purpose of enabling clients to express and explore through photographs aspects of their lives they would like to talk about. The author presents case examples using talking pictures therapy in brief therapy with two children aged 12 and 13 years old, in a UK school setting. Use of these photographs is discussed, both in relation to working with children and as an approach to brief therapy. In turn, the use of photographs is discussed further through the client material with regard to its use as an evaluative measure in assessing the client's “progress” through the study, as compared with standardized measures of client progress.

Keywords:

• phototherapy
• talking pictures therapy
• evaluative measures
• photographs