Explore & Grow

Explore & Grow

Through photography, we explore who we are. By knowing ourselves, we grow.  

Many of us feel disconnected and uncertain about where we belong. We move through life without fully understanding how we function, who we are, or what truly matters to us. My approach to therapeutic photography is designed to change that—offering a reflective space to explore your identity, process emotions, and create something deeply personal.

This is not about taking “nice” photos or learning technical skills—it’s about using photography as a tool for self-exploration, insight, and connection.

What is Therapeutic Photography?

Therapeutic Photography is a unique and non-clinical way to delve into self-discovery and personal growth. It’s all about using photography to explore our emotions, sense of identity, and feelings of belonging. The concept is simple: the way we perceive the world around us often mirrors how we view ourselves. So, when we engage with images—whether taken by us or others—we can uncover insights into our feelings, habits, and the hidden stories that shape our lives.

This approach can help us in several ways:

 1. Deepening Self-Awareness: By visually engaging with our lives, we can better understand who we are.

 2. Exploring Emotions and Identity: Through personal imagery and thoughtful reflection, we can better grasp our emotions and the identity we present to the world.

 3. Reconnecting with Memories: Capturing moments, places, and interactions allows us to explore our past and understand our sense of belonging.

 4. Developing Self-Compassion: Simply witnessing our stories through photography can foster acceptance and kindness towards ourselves.

 It’s important to note that this isn't therapy in a clinical sense, but it can be incredibly therapeutic. Therapeutic Photography creates a powerful space for reflection, storytelling, and finding personal meaning through images.

What Makes My Approach Different?

This isn’t your typical therapeutic photography experience. While many focus on self-expression or creative exercises, my approach blends structured techniques with insights from social work, positive psychology, coaching, and photography to create a transformative journey.

Instead of just taking photos, this is a guided process that encourages self-discovery through imagery. Each session is thoughtfully designed to help you explore your identity, emotions, and sense of belonging in a meaningful way.

 

What Makes My Approach  Unique:

✔  Evidence-based and Coaching-infused

 My method, rooted in positive psychology, goes beyond simple reflection. I use strength-based techniques to help you: 

- Reframe your personal stories and recognise your strengths. 

- Gain deeper emotional clarity and self-awareness. 

- Explore themes like belonging and personal growth in a structured manner.

✔  Extensive Social Work Experience

 With over 11 years as a social worker, I understand how self-perception and life changes shape our experiences. This background ensures that my approach is trauma-informed, providing a safe space for your exploration.

✔  Documentary Approach to Self-Discovery 

 Rather than focusing solely on self-portraits, I believe in capturing real-life moments. You’ll explore your identity through your environment, creating a personal collection of images that reflect your journey and sense of belonging.

 

✔  Interdisciplinary and Research-Informed

 My process integrates insights from psychology, social sciences, and storytelling, making it practical and experiential. This approach helps you navigate grief, manage transitions, and promote self-acceptance through visual storytelling.

 

✔  A Guided, Ongoing Journey 

Rather than a single workshop, my approach offers a structured journey where we delve into your story through: 

- Reflective photography exercises for self-exploration. 

- Guided conversations to uncover insights from your images. 

- Personalised book creation – The result of this work is a unique visual narrative: a book that helps you understand how you function, who you are, and where you belong.

 

This deeply personal approach is designed around your individual journey of identity, self-discovery, and embracing change. Each experience is different because no two people’s stories are the same. It’s about discovering who you are, where you belong, and how your story unfolds.

How This Works?

Each session follows a flexible yet structured process, allowing room for personal exploration while providing guidance and support:

  • Exploring your thoughts, emotions, and what you want to uncover.

  • Guided by reflective prompts, you capture what resonates with you. I can also document your journey through additional photography if you'd like.

  • Looking at your photographs, we uncover insights, patterns, and personal themes.

  • A curated, reflective piece that captures your journey in a tangible, lasting way. It’s not about perfect pictures—it’s about revealing what’s real, meaningful, and deeply you.

Services & Packages

Therapeutic photography can be tailored to many different needs, including:

🔍 Exploring Identity & Change - Who Am I Now?

Sometimes, change comes quietly. Other times, it turns everything upside down. This journey offers a space to pause and reflect—to explore who you are becoming, what you’re letting go of, and how to navigate the in-between.

📸 What it involves:

  • Photography prompts that reflect transition, uncertainty, and transformation

  • Exploring shifts in roles, relationships, career, or personal values

  • Guided sessions to reclaim your evolving story with clarity and compassion

  • Emotional grounding through a blend of social work, psychology, and creative reflection

  • Optional book: “Becoming Me: A Visual Journal of Change”

🖤 Ideal for:
Anyone navigating a major life transition—whether it’s chosen, unexpected, or somewhere in between—and looking for meaning, direction, and self-connection.

🌿  Menopause & Midlife Reflection

Menopause and midlife can feel like being handed a new map without instructions. This experience offers a space to reconnect with your identity, body, and voice—not to fix, but to reflect, honour, and evolve.

📸 What it involves:

  • Photography prompts exploring self-image, change, and personal symbols

  • Conversations around loss, renewal, invisibility, and new beginnings

  • A gentle invitation to see yourself differently—with softness, not scrutiny

  • Trauma-informed guidance through identity shifts and emotional recalibration

  • Optional visual narrative book: “Becoming: A Midlife Portrait”

🖤 Ideal for:
Women navigating menopause or midlife who want to reflect on who they were, who they are, and who they’re becoming—with honesty, compassion, and curiosity.

✨  Personal Growth & Self Discovery

A space to pause, reflect, and gently explore who you are beneath the noise. This process is for anyone feeling disconnected, in transition, or simply ready to look inward. Through photography, we slow down enough to notice—and begin to understand—the patterns, feelings, and stories that shape us.

📸 What it involves:

  • Guided prompts to explore your everyday world, identity, and emotional landscape

  • A visual exploration of self-image, environment, relationships, and values

  • Gentle, layered reflections—designed to bring unconscious patterns into view

  • Integration of psychology, photography, and trauma-informed support to deepen self-awareness

  • Optional photo book: “A Story Still Unfolding”

🖤 Ideal for:
Anyone seeking clarity, connection, or a more rooted sense of self. Perfect for those in transition, or simply curious about who they are becoming.

💔 Grief & Loss Exploration-Holding What Can’t Be Held

Grief changes us. It softens, shatters, stretches, and shapes. This experience offers a quiet space to honour what’s been lost—whether a person, a pet, a version of yourself, or something harder to name—and to process those emotions through images, not just words.

📸 What it involves:

  • Photography prompts to explore memory, presence, absence, and love

  • Visual storytelling of your personal loss—through places, objects, light, and symbolism

  • Gentle reflection guided by trauma-informed practice and emotional care

  • Space for remembrance, ritual, and emotional release

  • Optional book: “To Remember, To Feel, To Hold” – a visual tribute to your experience

🖤 Ideal for:
Anyone navigating grief, loss, or change—whether recent or long ago—who wants to create space for reflection, remembrance, and slow healing.

🌱 Post- Diagnosis Self Discovery- autism & Identity

For individuals navigating the emotional and personal impact of a recent autism diagnosis (late or early adulthood). I offer a safe, non-clinical space to explore identity beyond labels.

📸 What it involves:

  • Guided photography exercises to reflect on identity, sensory experiences, and self-acceptance

  • Conversations around masking, self-understanding, and emotional regulation

  • Optional visual journaling to map out "Who am I now?"

  • Designed with neurodivergent needs in mind—quiet, paced, and sensory-considerate

  • Trauma-informed & grounded in my postgraduate certificate in autism

🖤 Ideal for:
Late-diagnosed autistic adults, young adults post-diagnosis, or those re-exploring their identity.

🍽   Overeating & Emotional Eating Awareness

For anyone who uses food as comfort, protection, or escape—and wants to understand why. This journey is about reconnecting with your body, exploring emotional patterns, and discovering what your relationship with food might be trying to tell you.

📸 What it involves:

  • Using photography to reflect on emotional habits, cravings, and body perception

  • Capturing moments around eating, movement, and stillness to explore unconscious patterns

  • Guided reflection on body image, self-talk, and emotional triggers

  • Integrating gentle movement awareness through my background as a qualified personal trainer (no prescriptive plans—just reconnection and curiosity)

  • Optional visual journal: “The Body Remembers: A Photographic Reflection”

🖤 Ideal for:
Anyone navigating emotional or disordered eating patterns, seeking a compassionate way to understand their body, habits, and self-worth.

🧳 The Unseen Journey- for Carers, Supporters & Those Who Hold Space

This is a service for those who spend much of their time supporting others—emotionally, physically, or practically—to pause and reconnect with themselves. This experience is about stepping out of the caretaker role and rediscovering your story.

📸 What it involves:

  • Guided photography to explore your own identity beyond responsibility

  • Prompts like “What do I carry?” and “Where do I begin and end?”

  • Reflective discussions on burnout, boundaries, and invisible emotional labour

  • Optional personal storybook: “Who I Am, When I’m Not Holding Everything”

🖤 Ideal for:
Parents, partners, siblings, professionals, or anyone who’s been holding others and needs space to reconnect with their own self.

🔄 Reframing the Narrative -Healing Through Visual Storytelling

This experience is for anyone looking to revisit, process, or rewrite personal memories or past chapters of their life. It offers gentle tools to explore what shaped you and how you’d like to reimagine your story now.

📸 What it involves:

  • Reflective photography prompts that explore the past (e.g., objects, spaces, metaphors)

  • Creation of a “Then & Now” photo series to witness growth, grief, and resilience

  • Guided visual journaling to reframe old narratives and make peace with what was

  • Optional book: “The Story I Needed Then” or “A Letter to My Younger Self.”

🖤 Ideal for:
Anyone navigating inner child work, life transitions, trauma recovery, or personal reinvention.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Workshops & Group Sessions- Tailored to you

Whether you're a community group, organisation, or a circle of friends, my workshops and group sessions can be customised to any theme or need—from self-reflection and identity to grief, body image, or creative exploration.

📸 Let’s co-create something meaningful together.

My work is rooted in trauma-informed practices, social work, and positive psychology; however, it is important to note that it is not a form of therapy, and I am not a licensed therapist. Instead, I offer a reflective practice that complements your self-discovery journey and helps you gain insight into yourself.

I work with adults aged 16 and over, creating a safe and supportive space for self-exploration, emotional processing, and personal growth. My role is to guide and facilitate this journey, assisting you in seeing yourself more clearly, processing your emotions, and ultimately creating something meaningful.

 If at any point you feel that deeper therapeutic support is necessary, I encourage you to work alongside a qualified mental health professional. This process is designed to complement traditional therapy, not replace it.

A Note on My Role

Why This Matters?

We rarely take time to pause, reflect, and truly see ourselves. This process creates that space—helping you gain clarity, process emotions, and make sense of where you belong.

This work is informed by trauma-informed practice, ensuring a safe, supportive, and empowering environment. While this approach aligns with the broader “Know Yourself, Grow Yourself” movement, it’s uniquely yours—a deeply personal exploration of self, captured in a way that resonates with you.

Curious?

Let’s chat. Whether you’re interested in a session or a workshop or want to learn more, I’d love to hear from you.

📍 Based in Inverness | Available for in-person & virtual sessions

💬 Pricing

Every journey is different. 🌿 I offer hourly rates and custom packages based on your needs and goals.

✨ Please don’t hesitate to contact us for a personalised quote—we’ll find the right fit together.

📩 Contact me to start the conversation.