Your Body: A Landscape

(Formarly 'Portrait Therapy')

A 6-week journey to reconnect to your body in the most visually tangible way possible. If you want photographic evidence of what a primordial miracle your body is, you are in the right place. I take applicants who desire to meet themselves and fall in love with the way they look outside of the beauty standards offered to us by the mainstream media through this program.

What is it?

A 6-week program working 1:1 weekly to unpick and explore any insecurities and body-shame.

Bi-weekly self-portraiture tasks and body confidence rituals.

A photoshoot in nature with me to celebrate and wrap up the journey. We will do this semi-nude, nude, or explore different ways that fabrics could support us in documenting your body.

Exchange:

€1,200

If my application is successful, What can I expect?

Each week we work 1:1 for 1.5 hours over Zoom or in real life to focus on how you feel about your body and bravely dive into the root cause of any insecurities you have around the way you look. Using somatic tools such as EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) we can safely release the emotional charge behind the insecurities and gently de-armour the inner critic, who strives to keep us safe and small. 

Over the 6-week period I will set some homework tasks like mirror work and self-portraits to get you engaging with your body and acquainted with different angles that you wouldn't usually see from your own perspective. Although at first the process can be confronting – clients typically find that to see themselves in this way deeply intimate and surprising – and the results have always been empowering.



The final outcome will be a semi-nude or nude photoshoot together in the natural world surrounding Berlin. 


Pictures of you, for yourself.

How can I apply?

There’s a limited number of spaces available. I will only take four people so that my energy remains clear and focused for each client. The application process ensures that each individual’s values and intensions match those of 'Your Body: A Landscape' and that they are ready to commit themselves to the journey. 

You can click here to Apply 

After you fill out the application form I will get back to you and offer a video call and following that, we begin the journey! 

Where will it be?

Berlin is surrounded by over 100 beautiful lakes and woodland spaces. There are a handful of specially chosen places where I like to work which are both safe and discrete. I have a list of locations which each offer something special and that we can discuss as we plan our shoot.  

Tell me more about the shoot...

Yes, the best bit! When I take a portrait session I like to begin with a ceremony to honour the body. This can look different depending on how the six weeks have unfolded and what personal symbols, phrases and intensions each client has.

We thank the body for opening up to this process and guiding each wonderful client here to this safe space to be seen and admired as they are. This will often involve lighting a candle and saying a few words.

We usually begin our shoot gently and light-heartedly, connecting to the natural environment. We will do some movement practices and some shaking and tapping to really land in the space. Seeing what comes up and listening to how the body intuitively feels like moving. Over the course of the photoshoot, if the client desires, we bring attention to photographing any area of the body which has a particular story or history that we have been working on healing their relationship to over the weeks. 






It is my highest honour and joy to assist in the re-writing of each client’s body narrative. 

To pour self-compassion and newly found confidence into all these parts of the body. 

There’ll be a small picnic to make sure all needs are met. We can take a pause at any time and have a snack, as well as do some tapping if there are more things come up as we shoot. On average, the portrait session lasts two hours. 

Aftercare

We will arrange an appointment shortly after the shoot we will take a look at the images together. At this point we can discuss if you would like to keep the images colour or black and white. We’ll talk about how many images you would like, and whether you want some prints.


How many images are included in the price?

You’ll have ten digital images to keep.

If you’d like more, I offer bundles of extra photos at an additional cost that we can discuss during the Aftercare session.

If you feel the pull to get some wonderful fine-art prints, that’s also a service that I provide and we can discuss more during our aftercare session. It is of course an additional cost as well. 

Sounds good?

Apply Here

 to start the journey 

What birthed this idea?


Growing up I was always drawn towards photographing family and friends in nature, and making many self-portraits with a timer on my mother's first digital camera in the early 2000s. Through my late teens to early twenties as a photography student I took the most profound inspiration from female artists who work with their bodies. This very much informed the person that I am today. Artists such as Ana Medieta, Marina Abramovic and Francesca Woodman. Each of these women used their own blend of performance art and conceptual photography to ask deeper questions about the nature of having a body and being a woman. Unearthing their own personal power in contrast to the traditional domestic responsibilities placed on women. They called into question the notions of ownership over one’s own body and mind, and studying their work gave me access to a personal sense of sovereignty which I otherwise would not have had access to. 

Having survived domestic abuse during my studies and overcome the mental struggles of reckoning with what it means to be a woman with agency over their body. My journey with self-portraiture has brought me into a space of empowerment and self-trust beyond my wildest dreams. After graduating my BA Photography in 2018 I entered the world of fashion and it was so clear to me the divide between human emotions and body in that space. In a system that is using bodies as a commodity I faced the heart breaking reality that models have to deal with a hit-or-miss reality of whether the photographer will have ethical and emotionally safe modes of photographing. Sometimes models would be tired and close to tears and photographers would force them to keep going on set. It was hard, matter of fact, and sales driven. It made me feel depressed and hopeless to be working alongside all this intensity. Especially after having built such a conviction to personal sovereignty.  I have spent the last few years since I left that industry carefully studying what exactly I found jarring about it and what I could do to transform this experience into medicine and use the skills that I have to photograph people in the most empowering, ethical and safe way I have capacity for. It is from this place I offer you my eyes and my sensitivity to show you the timeless wonder of your own body.  


Falling deeply in love with one’s own image is a journey that starts from within and it is truly life changing.


Apply Here

To start your Portrait Therapy journey

About me

I am Claire, a certified EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) practitioner and a Portrait Photographer. I studied a BA in Photography during which I explored emotional topics such as the unconscious and particularly the 'Optical Unconscious', a term coined by Walter Benjamin. This is the notion that humans tell the camera a different truth then that which they can tell each other verbally. It is an honour to merge my qualifications as a therapist and a photographer together and offer my clients a unique and well-rounded experience. 

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