An Exploration of Photography as a Wellness Tool for Counselors-in-Training

Counselors-in-training (CIT) often experience a myriad of challenges during their academic studies. From balancing time, finances, acclimating to a new environment, fears of being judged or receiving negative feedback (Patterson & Levitt, 2012; Prosek et al., 2013; Warren & Nash, 2019), CIT physical (Neviyarni et al., 2018), mental (Prosek et al., 2013), and overall wellness (Lenz et al., 2012) tend to be impacted negatively. For these reasons, Counselor Educators (CE) have used wellness models and assessments to assist in the educational journey; however, wellness practices continue to decline for both CIT and practicing counselors (Abel et al., 2012; Lenz et al., 2012; Prosek et al., 2013; Schmidt et al., 2019). Through an exploration of expressive therapies in connection with wellness, researchers have discovered creative expressive ways to engage CIT in learning about and practicing wellness (Davis et al., 2020; Hinkle & Dean, 2017; Ohrt et al., 2009; Robert & Kelly, 2010; Warren & Nash, 2019; Wilson & Ziomek-Daigle, 2013). Of these, art therapy, uses photography as an expressive wellness tool. In this study, we explored the use of photography tools (i.e., phototherapy, therapeutic and mindfulness photography, and photovoice) on CIT wellness. We share our findings and provide implications for CIT, CE and suggest next steps for future researchers.