Photography has taught me something that therapy reminds me of almost every day.
Whenever we take a photograph, we’re making a choice. We decide where to stand, what to include in the frame and, perhaps just as importantly, what is left outside it.
Sometimes we look at a beautiful view, take the photograph and then realise afterwards that it doesn’t quite capture what we experienced. The landscape is still there, but somehow the image feels incomplete. It reminds us that a photograph is only one perspective, not the whole picture.
I often think our lives can feel a little like that.
When we’re struggling, it’s easy to become focused on one part of our experience:
- A difficult relationship.
- A painful conversation.
- A mistake we’ve made.
- A worry about the future.
Over time, it can begin to feel as though this is the whole story, when in reality it’s only one part of a much wider landscape.
One of the things therapy can gently offer is the opportunity to look again.
Not because the facts have changed. But because our perspective can.
In photography, I might take a step to one side, crouch a little lower or walk a little further away before taking another photograph. The view itself hasn’t changed, but what I notice has.
Sometimes therapy is rather like that.
Together we begin to explore different ways of looking at your experiences, your relationships and the beliefs you hold about yourself. This isn’t about denying difficult things haven’t happened or suggesting you only focus on positives. It’s about allowing space for curiosity and discovering that there may be more than one way of understanding what you’re living through.
Over time, many people find that life feels less overwhelming, not because everything around them has changed, but because they are no longer viewing it through only one frame.
It quietly reminds me that there is always more to see than first meets the eye.
Perhaps that’s why photography has become such an important part of my life. It reminds me that, even when life feels fixed or certain, there is almost always another way of seeing. Sometimes, all we need is the space to discover it.