Phototherapy and re-enactment portraiture (Spence, Martin)

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Rosy Martin, Jo Spence · 1983

What it is

Re-enactment phototherapy is a collaborative, feminist practice using photographic portraiture. A client (the "sitter") chooses a memory, a family-album image, a role or an imagined future self. Inside a counselling relationship they stage and perform it, with costume and props, for a…

Format

• The sources do not give a fixed number of sessions. The structure below combines what they describe. Phase names are this guide's own. In the original Spence–Martin sessions, the pair discussed a session's focus, planned the images, shot them, and later reflected on what they had made. Martin adds…
• Phase A: relationship and contract. Goal: trust, safety and a clear contract. Martin begins as an ordinary counsellor and brings in photography only if the client chooses it. Formal contracts and boundaries help clients feel held. Spence and Martin co-counselled for about a year before they first…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Professional frame. None of the sources names a regulated profession, credential, certifying body or accredited training route for re-enactment phototherapy. Martin's own route was a postgraduate diploma in counselling (Institute of Education, University of London, 1995), which she took after the early co-counselling-based work with Spence. She now works as a psychological therapist in private practice. Neither…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• complicated or traumatic grief. Pace slowly and refer on if needed.
• people disclosing too much too soon. Keep this round brief and light.
• goals that are too large for one session. Pick one belief and one scene.
• harsh judgement of their own appearance in the new images. Go back to 4.12.
• contempt for the younger self, which is a key target for nurturing work (4.12).

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.