[Amandasmom]

Yesterday's session my T was asking a lot of questions about my family. I had an idea today to bring in some pictures to show her. I just sent her an email asking if it's OK (not sure if it's breaking any boundaries).

Have you ever brought in any family pics to T? How did it go?

Anxiously waiting her reply. She usually answers the next day. I just sent her the email about an hour ago.

[Outcast_of_RGaol]

Both my psyche and myself are amateur photographers... so we would never do that to each other.
Nevertheless... I think that it's a great idea of yours to do just that. I think visuals can help us put things into context sometimes and I really hope that your T has no problems with it!!

[stopdog]

I did once. It was fine. I cannot imagine how it has anything to do with a therapist's boundaries and I just did it. I did not seek permission to do it.

[HazelGirl]

Yes, my T wanted me to bring in pictures of me when I was younger.

[RTerroni]

I asked my prior Therapist this and she said that I could, however before I was able to bring any pictures in she terminated things with me.

[nottrustin]

I have T has asked me to a few times to bring in pictures...me when I weighed a lot more than I do now and started seeing her, pictures of my mom since I talk about her so much and she wanted a visual, etc.

I have also brought in pictures of my kiddos.

She has also shown me pictures of her son...who is an adult and her pets

Yeah I have, My T asked me to make a self soothing bag and to bring to show her, I put a photo of my husband and kids in the bag.

[LaborIntensive]

I brought this picture! It scared him.

Originally Posted by LaborIntensive

I brought this picture! It scared him.

That scared me

[Focus62]

I just recently showed a picture of my brother and I to my T. It wasn't weird or anything, she liked to see it, I think. My brother makes me happy, he's a good influence in my life and she commented that we have the same smile . I would be hesitant to show her pictures of my parents though as they are my "problem." I don't think she'd have an issue with it, I just think I would be uncomfortable.

I've also shown her pictures of my pets and I've even brought my dog in once with her permission... she is a pet person though .

LaborIntensive - That picture is super cool!

[ShaggyChic_1201]

I've brought in lots of photos of me and my family. My T said it helped her a great deal. She really was able to read a lot out of them; looking at body language and intuiting personalities (correctly!) from what she saw in the pics. She also was able to see evidence of my misery, which was helpful for me b/c I minimized a lot.

Some of our most interesting sessions happened over old family photos.

[feralkittymom]

Absolutely. He never asked me to, but I asked if we could look at old family photos together. He asked me if I wanted to talk about them and I felt like I needed to. It brought up a lot of feelings and memories for me--difficult but good stuff to work with. And there were many things he noticed that were helpful to me. It helped me to recognize how powerless I was as a child, and that was important to counter feelings of responsibility. It also further bonded our relationship. It felt very protective of me for him to see and talk about the child I was. I felt he was quite moved by those sessions.

[Petra5ed]

Yeah I have. Maybe this is a dumb question, but why do you even need to ask? It seems like a normal thing to do, and would help put names to faces... you're paying a professional to listen, if my T wouldn't look at a photo in session with me I think I would be really freaked out by that reaction, and I would probably stop feeling comfortable at that point. I would go home and ruminate on why, just why would T not look at a picture of let's say, grandma who had just passed away. Then I'd decide to find a new T.

[feralkittymom]

Yeah, I don't see it as any sort of boundary issue at all. But my purpose was clearly therapeutic. I think if showing pictures was for some sort of distraction, rather than to support a therapeutic goal, it might be counter-productive. I don't think Ts generally need to see photos of people for purely informational reasons--or for curiosity. But as visual expressions of feelings and dynamics, and to prompt reflection, they can be really valuable.

[CantExplain]

I haven't shown Mr T any photos yet, but I did show him the nude portrait I did of my wife.

I used Pictures from various phases of my life to speak about what was going on in my life with my family. You could see the ages of when I went from a carefree, happy-go-lucky child to a sad depressed, anxious kid. These sessions really helped me to learn to love myself which at that point I HATED desperately. It was my own idea to bring in all the pictures, and she returned them on the day we terminated.

She also brought in a couple of pictures from when she was a child, and shared stories about them. The same sad stories from a picture that I and many others have told or can be told from the forlorn face of a child.

ETA: I also would send emails of family pictures, because some are in public life and she does not follow what is happening in the news, so I would share pictures of the important people in my life or important event.

[AllyIsHopeful]

Sometimes I'll brag about my niece or tell her a story about something or someone that will prompt me to show her a picture on my phone. She's always eager to see them. She has shown me pictures on her phone as well.

[someone321]

I've asked my previous T if I could show him a picture of my whole family together as I talked a lot about them but he was not interested... I haven't asked my current T as I thought that it means that it's not important for Ts to imagine the person who I am taking about...

[AllyIsHopeful]

Originally Posted by someone321

I've asked my previous T if I could show him a picture of my whole family together as I talked a lot about them but he was not interested... I haven't asked my current T as I thought that it means that it's not important for Ts to imagine the person who I am taking about...

My current T has the same stance. Though i'm not sure she'd completely reject me showing a picture of my family, she doesn't find it necessary. When she finally saw a picture of my mom, unintentionally, she admitted it was weird to have an image and wasn't expecting her to look the way she did.

[SmallestFatGirl]

I have shown mine pics but they were in some sort of context. I struggle with body dysmorphia after a 200+ lbs weight loss, so I'd brought in pics of me from a few years ago so he could understand what I see when I look in the mirror. I also brought pics from an event I attended that he knew I was dreading to kinda share my success over my internal conflict.

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[Raging Quiet]

I shared my wedding photo album with her

[growlithing]

I have a million pictures of stuff on my phone which is on me at all times. I'll show them random pictures ha. The worst is trying to show LCM a picture because she gets excited, takes my phone and flips to other pictures as well. I don't particularly care because it's not like I keep billions of inappropriate or embarrassing pictures but at the same time it's like LCM.... No. Rude.

[phaset]

The T I saw in high school asked me to bring in some pictures of me when I was younger. The next week I brought in a huge box filled with photo albums. Apparently she only wanted a few... Whoops! I think she was trying to figure out when my problems started. We looked through them and she asked me when and where they were taken, what we were doing and how I felt in them. It was shocking as I didn't remember anything about most of them.

[Amandasmom]

My T responded back. She said "You can always bring what you feel relevant to your treatment ;-)". Yes, with a smiley face. How would you take that? Ok to bring in the pictures?