The picture of health : a heuristic self-inquiry of therapeutic photography as self-care for helping professionals

Abstract

Helping professionals are at elevated risk of stress and burnout due to the nature of their work. This fact creates an ethical imperative for helpers to intentionally attend to their self-care needs. The purpose of this heuristic inquiry is to address the question: What is the experience of engaging in therapeutic photography for the purposes of self-care? The study is prefaced by a literature review on helping-professional stress and burnout, selfcare, and therapeutic photography. The raw data of this study include images, poetry, and written personal reflection. These data are summarized through a creative synthesis in the form of a metaphoric narrative, accompanied by a discussion of the implications, findings, and possible future directions of the research.