Utilization of Family Photos and Movies in Family Therapy

This article discusses a technique the authors have designated Family Photo Reconnaisance. They describe the rationale for and process of utilizatizing family photographs and movies in family therapy sessions to evoke past events and memories and to uncover feelings about these occurrences and the people involved in them. Through their utilization, how one has changed over time is vividly seen. Who is missing from the constellation and when they “dropped out of the family orbit becomes obvious as do distorted memories. Family members reexperiencing the past together around their photographs come to better appreciate one another's current feelings and behavior and often are enabled to gain mastery over unresolved conflicts.