PhotoTherapy Techniques Training Workshop

 

Judy Weiser, R.Psych., A.T.R. • Director of the PhotoTherapy Centre in Vancouver, Canada, will teach a 3-day “PhotoTherapy Techniques Training Workshop (Level One)” in San Francisco (at the Hyatt Airport Hotel) — April 9-11*, 2011.

For further details vist PhotoTherapy Centre Website

VMT – Video Movie Therapy

Doctor Gaetano Giordano started to apply an “heterodox” (as he defined it) psychotherapy practise in 1987, called V.M.T., Video Movie Therapy, but the first publications date back to 1990, after 3 years of case record.

In his article “ Note per una messa in scena costruttivistica”, Dr. Giordano picks out precise pathologies that respond to this treatment: panic syndrome, obsessive disorders, phobia, anxiety, and the main depressive disorders.

V.M.T. foresees a therapy group made of 5-8 people who have weekly meeting of 3 hours and a half. The aim is the creation of a single 90′ or 120′ film or 2-3 episodes of 60′ minutes.

The group write down the screening, play the different actors’ roles and follow the editing phase. Each scene is written and shot before passing on the next one.

Each participant plays himself and the story told is the group’s one. The narrative key is ironical and comical, with clear references to the Italian comedies of the 50s (Totò, Sordi,..)

The patient is the interpreter, where the interpreter creates its own character (himself): that involves the re-writing of the psychological and existential problems of the participants.

The aim is to free the patient from the self-responsibility and to use objectivity both as a self-validation and one’s own world vision.

In this practise, states Doctor Giordano, the core is twice: the patient feel confident as the therapist share the patient’s experience [he too play an ironical role as the “Quack” and the “False Prophet”], and the video recording is merely a technical data, a personal choice that allow to create the (virtual) space for a narrative and therefore creative reflection.

(from LA PSICOTERAPIA COME ATTO ETICO IN UNA DIMENSIONE TRANSCONTESTUALE – Note per una messa in scena costruttivistica di Gaetano Giordano – PSYCHOMEDIA )

A new application of videotherapy technique: Videodream

Yesterday, Saturday 6th November 2010, we attended “Le Trame dello Sguardo” convention organized in Rome by Doc Oliviero Rossi,  psychologist and psychotherapist, dealing with video, photo and theater in helping relationship.

Doctor Rossi presented a new application of  videotherapy techniques, called “Videodream”. This method forsees a group work based on one partecipant’s dream, a sort of collective dramatization introduced as an evolution of the gestaltic role-play.

From the book “Lo Sguardo e l’Azione” (by Oliviero Rossi, ed. Universitarie Romane, 2010):
“Il videodream è un lavoro su più livelli: alla base c’è la drammatizzazione con le sue regole di relazione tra il terapeuta e il sognatore nel contesto di gruppo. Su un altro piano il terapeuta partecipa al lavoro del cliente ma inserisce, in primo luogo, la telecamera (…) successivamente stimola l’uso di un linguaggio cinematografico tout court.”

(trad. Videodream is a work developing on more levels: at the basis there is dramatization, with all its relational rules between the therapist and the dreamer in a group context. In another level the therapist participates to the client’s work before by adding the videocamera and after by stimulating the use of a cinematic language tout court.)

VideoTherapy Report EU

VideoTherapy Report EU teaser: a taste of the documentary , with some extracts of the interview done with Judy Weiser

VideoTherapy Report EU arrives to Russia…

Judy Weiser’s collegue in Russia, Psychologist Olga Perevezentseva, has linked VideoTherapy Report EU to her psyforte – фототерапия в России blog for phototherapy .

Here’s a short introduction about Mrs. Perevezentseva:

Olga Perevezentseva, Moscow, Russia is a Certified Psychologist, trained in Social Psychology, and Personal and Family Psychology treatment. For a long time, she has used PhotoTherapy techniques with her clients (youth as well as adults). She also has been a Lecturer for the Psychology faculty of Moscow University of Business and Politics, and has given many Workshops in these techniques. She is the Director of “PSYforte” — a company that combines well-known specialists in Russia (for solving of psychological problems). She has also created and maintains the Russian informational resource website “PSYphoto” about the field of PhotoTherapy Techniques used in Counseling and Therapy (which is linked directly to Judy Weiser’s website of the same name, with her approval).

[from Who is Doing What, Where / PhotoTherapy-Center website ]

VideoTherapy Report EU: the three W’s

(Why this project ? Why it matters now? Why do you need to make it?)

[from Any possible social impact? – DOX #85 SPRING 2010]

.

It dates back in 2002 –  the first project that called for the use of the video camera in a therapeutic context undertook by Fabrizio Fantini (LaDamaSognatrice HD Audiovisual Production company co-funder together with Chiara Roncagli): the project turned out in the touching docudrama set inside a residential house for mentally handicapped persons of Cernusco sul Naviglio (MI), titled “Le Meccaniche dell’Amore” (“Mechanics of Love”).

Conceived for the sanitary structures circuit, for internal use only, it was completed after over a year of post-production (the MusicTherapist Fabio Federico Gallarati composed the original soundtrack ), but has never been shown to the general public: the strong emotional impact of the images and the high experimental nature of the project were sufficient to prevent the  release of the necessary authorisations.

This didn’t prevent Fabrizio from carrying on his theories about the effectiveness of the use of video in therapeutic processes; he then conceived the project “Volti e Risvolti di un Carosello chiamato: DROGA”,  a video-therapy techniques based learning path for students of secondary schools that foresaw the involvement of drug-addicted and socially disadvantaged people.  Also this time, the highly-experimental nature of the idea prevented public institutions from participating in the project realization.

In 2008 Fabrizio and Chiara took part to a claimed-to-be ‘videotherapy project’ titled  “Amletica”, that involved the patients of the CSM of Cento  (FE), and, disappointed by the failure of the therapeutic process, decided to investigate the rising methodologies used in the videotherapy field in Europe. VideoTherapy techniques were born overseas more than 30 years ago, but only in the last few years they have been adopted in Europe, sometimes unwittingly, more often incorrectly.

The aim of the project “VideoTherapy Report EU” is to reconstruct the story and the actual general state of affairs of videotherapy in at least four European countries where this discipline is spreading, shed light on the fundamental difference between “VideoTherapy” (using video during therapy) and “Therapeutic Video” (using video based activities as the healing process itself) defining who is eligible to practice each one.

Due to the lack of information about this issue, many public funds are given to project that have no therapeutic value and are led by people not qualified. The danger is both a huge waste of money and, what’s worse, the trivial effect it may have on people who invest their time in what they think is a therapeutic non-pharmacological  treatment.

Looking for therapists using video during their sessions

The project aim to compare and promote good practice in the use of the videocamera during therapy sessions. We have selected four European countries – Italy, Spain, France and Finland –  where pioneers of this discipline are establishing new methods and techniques. We are looking for therapist using video during their sessions, in order to widen our enquiry to all Europe.

Please write to ladamasognatrice[at]gmail.com

Interview with Judy Weiser

Image courtesy of Bob Ostiguy

Lucca, 20th May 2010 LaDamaSognatrice HD Audiovisual Productions Company has interviewed Psychologist Judy Weiser, one of the pioneers of  the videotherapy techniques, who is Director of the PhotoTherapy Center in Vancouver, Canada.

We have asked Ms. Weiser to explain  the word ‘VideoTherapy’, and if it can be defined  “practise”, “methodology” or “discipline”.

Being one of the main expert in this field – a sort of living encyclopaedia – she was able to tell us when was it born, where, and who have been  the first pioneers in this field. In her articles she has identified  5 techniques that can be used in PhotoTherapy – we have then asked if it exists anything similar also in VideoTherapy.

As PhotoTherapy / VideoTherapy techniques seems to be “simple and universally applicable” we then wondered if  it is required special skill in the craft of video making. Judy Weiser also helds lessons in phototherapy and videotherapy – we were curious to know if there something that she recommends to her students, something that has never to be done, that you just have to avoid when practising videotherapy

We then touched the art therapy issue, asking her what is the relation between phototherapy / videotherapy and art therapy: in one of her articles she wrote “PhotoTherapy is , and yet, isn’t, Art Therapy” but we also found that “Art Therapy, also known as Art Psychotherapy, incorporates the media of fine arts such as (…) photography and video”

Last but not least, we’ve asked her a crucial question: is it true that videotherapy techniques “…extend the psychotherapist’s skill and reach” and “…enhance and abbreviate psycotherapy” ?

A 3-hour conversation that gave the project a push and represented the ideal starting point for our research of EU applications of VideoTherapy.

“Videotherapy Report” shooting has just started!

News about “Videotherapy Report” project

The project ‘Videotherapy report’ has been posted also on Facebook on the PhotoTherapy, Therapeutic Photography, Photo Art Therapy, and VideoTherapy group’s board [ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52420371571&ref=ts ] and on the  Phototherapy Discussion Group Forum [ http://members.boardhost.com/phototherapy/msg/1263485438.html ]

Videotherapy report – The project

The documentary is going to be a survey about Videotherapy state of affairs in Europe. Videotherapy is not yet a discipline, as there are not fixed rules yet. It is a tool of intervention in psychology. In this field the video camera can be used both in Videotherapy (by a Psycotherapist during a therapy session) or in Therapeutic Video (by an operator, during video based activities) as an example, videotherapy paths can involve a group of women with food disorders, or drug addicted, but also autistic children, disabled persons…..

This practise was born nearly 40 years ago in Canada and Australia and is now spreading also in Europe: we will take into consideration 4 countries very active in this field.

The documentary will be divided into 4 sections, each centred in a different country. Each section will show the conversation between a psychotherapist and one of his “users” and the psychotherapist will explain what videotherapy is, and how he is going to organise a therapy session. Images will be supported by archive footage supplied by therapists.