Phototherapy In Mental Health

PhotoTherapy techniques use personal snapshots and family photos to connect with feelings, thoughts, and memories during therapy and counselling sessions, in ways that words alone cannot do. PhotoTherapy Techniques: Exploring the Secrets of Personal Snapshots and Family Albums is the most comprehensive introduction to the field of PhotoTherapy available - and it is an excellent substitute for taking an introductory training workshop! This book, now in its second edition, explains and demonstrates each of the major techniques involved, and provides theoretical rationale from both psychology and art therapy contexts. It also includes many photo-illustrated client examples, case transcripts, and practical experiential "starter" exercises so that readers can immediately begin using these techniques in their own practice. PhotoTherapy Techniques has been reviewed in many professional mental health journals and numerous public-media articles, generated a lot of positive feedback from readers, and is used as a text for university courses as well as being selected as the text for "Continuing Education" licensing credit courses for numerous mental health professions (through distance education programs).

This book provides a foundation in phototherapy and therapeutic photography. It provides overviews from different approaches and contexts, including phototherapy, re-enactment phototherapy, community phototherapy, self-portraiture.

Therapeutic photography is an increasingly popular approach for increasing self-esteem, resilience and self-reliance in a wide range of people, including those with dementia, autism or mental health problems, school children and offenders. This book provides practical guidance on delivering therapeutic photography interventions and introduces the theory underpinning the approach. Each chapter describes a different element of therapeutic photography, including storytelling through photographs to discuss relationships and the use of self-portraits and selfies to explore identity. Exercises, reflection points and examples are provided throughout and a detailed case study shows the approaches described in the book used with a group of young adults on the autism spectrum. An adaptable programme is also included in the appendix.

While theories linking seasonality and affective episodes date back to the time of Hippocrates, it is only recently that the idea has gained widespread acceptance. The recognition that melatonin could be suppressed by bright light, the delineation of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) as a syndrome with distinct clinical and therapeutic implications, and the efficacy of bright light in the treatment of this condition, were all important steps in this regard. The therapeutic value of bright light in SAD closely aligns the biology of the disorder with its treatment and introduces into psychiatry an exciting new therapeutic modality. SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDERS AND PHOTOTHERAPY brings together the latest research in four key areas: * Diagnostic profile of SAD, epidemiological issues, and specific clinical applications of light * Animal models of seasonality * Normal human seasonality and its relationship to psychiatric disorders * Biological mechanisms subserving light treatment Introductory chapters consider the different profiles of SAD and detail outcome studies across the Northern Hemisphere. Important questions are addressed about summer depression, with and without winter depression, as well as seasonality and SAD in children and adolescents. Also included are current prevalence data on SAD--several reports in this volume suggest it may occur in approximately 5% of the population with subclinical disturbances present in even more individuals. Reports on seasonal changes in the normal population consider whether the mood and personality changes observed in SAD are extremes of normal human seasonality and whether the disorder's pathophysiology is actually on a continuum with a range of biological seasonal changes found in the general population. A neurological theory is presented that maps the basic systems involved in mobilizing behavior and engaging the organism with its environment. The theory is then applied to seasonal changes both in normal motivated behavior and in SAD. Points of consensus as well as points of contention are given balanced consideration in the book's chapters, which address several unresolved questions concerning phototherapy's mechanism of action. Among these controversial areas are the assessment of placebo effect, choice of placebo control, and the importance of the timing of light treatment to its antidepressant effect. Also discussed are the circadian phase shift theory of SAD, the melatonin hypothesis, and other current theories. There is substantial agreement among clinical researchers that SAD is a common condition, and that, in a large percentage of cases, symptoms of winter depression can be ameliorated by treatment with environmental light. Beyond these fundamental points of agreement, however, many aspects of SAD remain controversial. This timely, authoritative compilation provides all clinicians and researchers with a comprehensive update on important, new investigations on this intriguing disorder.

Rev. ed. of: Psychiatric nursing for Canadian practice / Wendy Austin, Mary Ann Boyd.