magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by katya De Luisa on 7/15/2004, 2:07 pm
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's -- WOW!
Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator I was deeply moved by your very interesting posting -- at both professional and personal levels (both my father, and my father-in-law lived with this awful disease for many years before their deaths!)... I am absolutely fascinated by your description of your work and its results --- and I would like to know a lot more, either by corresponding with you back-channel (directly) or preferably, ON this Discussion Group Site page, so that others could benefit from our discussion... However, at this point, the first option is not possible, because when you posted your message, you forgot to fill in the blank for "your email" -- and so, unlike many of the messages here, where you can "click" on the person's name and find their email addres to use to write them directly, there is no such link with the appearance of your name. So, first of all, could you please send me your email address to: jweiser@phototherapy-centre.com and I will try to insert it back into your message, unless you don't want your message to have it there... Secondly, I would like to know more about this work you described -- and especially about the manual you are creating to let others learn how to do it too. When you say the "results have been exciting", I realize this probably wasn't a research thesis project, so you probably don't have any pre-test/post-test info like the statisticians love, but if you have any other people's observations in addition to your own, then I would think that this would be sufficient "evidence" to have this considered for publication in some Journal (Art Therapy, Nursing, Social Work, whatever) -- so that others could benefit from doing the same with their clients... finally, I want to make the point (which you already know, from the way you described "the interchange"!), that your work is a great example of what I keep trying to say about using PhotoTherapy (or Therapeutic Photography) techniques being as much in the *process of interacting with the images* as it is in the content of the photo-images themselves... thanks for a fascinating posting; please tell us more when you get a chance (and send me your email address, so that I may write you directly if I ever want to! If you want me to have it but don't want it posted on this site, then just say so when you send it) thanks, Judy (Weiser)
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's -- WOW!
Posted by Katya De Luisa Thanks for your reply. When the person is in late stage Alzheimer's they need a companion to do the physical work and help them focus in the present on the magazine through conversation. Earlier stages and their caregiver benefit greatly because they can create individually, discussing choices or create one together. This bonds them emotionally and enables the communication to improve while maintaining it throughout the progression. Too often the caregiver believes the person is gone when they can no longer communicate and they begin to emotionally seperate from the loved one. This complicates caregiving and thousands of people have been put into nursing homes prematurely because of it. Collages can be made with personal photographs and magazine imagery combined. I always recommend including the magazine work because of the subliminal mental and physical benefits. The magazine refelects the world of the past or the present. The paging through it imprints the brain and gets it processing a multitude of information. The pictures create emotional responses and when they are singled out of a scene empowers the individual to create a collage representation of experiences associated to the images. The individual actually experiences the beach, the bird, the house and when they are combined in a collage the neurons create new pathways. I've been at this 4 yrs. and held numerous workshops, presented at conferences, trained cartegivers, local hospice and Alzheimer's Association and yet haven't been able to get one researcher interested. So I'm finishing my manual, "Collage Communication during Alzheimer's" which I haven't found a publisher for. I have found a publisher interested in the book I'm compiling info for. "Innersense" reality perceptions during Alzheimer's/dementia. Thank you for posting me and I will continue to write and read your site.
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's -- WOW!
Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator I would be very interested in seeing the Manual when it's in a stage that it can be shared (even pre-publication*) as well as the book you mention, once it's available. Re: "pre-publication" I would be glad to sign a "non-disclosure" agreement for seeing a pre-publication draft -- it's a good idea to do this with things that are not yet copyright, when sending them out to interested people in advance. I've had the unfortunate experience sending part of my book to someone about 8 months before it was published, only to see THEM publish my stuff in an article, which was then of course marked "copyright" and I had a problem when my book's publisher told me I needed to get this fellow's permission to then print my OWN stuff... So I am never insulted if someone wants me to do this before sending me anything they have created and hope to publish... and I always now make sure that anything I send out like this says, at the top of every page, "©copyright, Judy Weiser; permission only for personal use -- forwarding not permitted", or something similarly "strong" like that... makes the person you send it to, aware that they can't just go giving copies out without your name being attached... anyway, whenever the Manual can be shared, I'd love to see a copy! unfortunately I have no suggestions re: publishers -- sorry! keep up the good work! Judy (Weiser)
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's -- WOW!
Posted by katya deluisa Never did the conference. You were right about the organization. I bought an RV and am traveling the USA giving workshops and decided to log on to this site again. Never know if I will be in one of the areas of the people who respond.
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's -- WOW!
Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator (I just posted a response to one of your other messages today so I won't repeat it again here...) Judy (Weiser)
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by che
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by katya De Luisa The interaction the individual has with the magazine, (info, photos. advertising), isolating images from pages of images, cutting & pasting all has theraputic benefits as well as the associations to the imagery itself. If you feel comfortable to send a mailing address I will mail the chapter. kdeluisa@yahoo.com
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Rosalie on 9/3/2004, 3:39 pm, in reply to "Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's"
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Rita In short, the two populations vary greatly and I would be very cautious about applying one "blanket" treatment to both, however, I would be most interested in reading the chapter on your work.
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by katya deluisa I recently came back to this site. Currently traveling the USA conducting workshops and seminars. As to your comments of course a person with a stroke who is stilll cognitive is different from one with Alzheimer's. However it is quite common for persons with Alz to also experience TIA's. I have worked with persons with strokes both cognitive and not with collage communication and they respond very possitively to the process. I am presently training staff at an organization for mentally disabled adults in this same process. Across the board their disabilities vary however their need to communicate doesn't. Brain damage of any kind manifests itself differently in each individual. Alzheimer's, strokes, traumatic brain injury, emotional, or physical create imbalances in the chemical and neurological functioning. My sole interest is to enable them to communicate so they are not lost. When communication is lost their disabilities increase considerably. Collage communication is an easy process that doesn't pigeon hole one brain disability or another.
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by katya deluisa
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator Good to see you are posting here again... I'm sorry you didn't make it to Vancouver for that Conference but I do undersand your reasons, yes... on other thing: I remember asking you the lines in italics below-- earlier, in a previous posting: and I don't remember receiving your info about this (maybe you sent it back-channel and I've just forgotten! But I sure would like to be able to find that one, because I think it would be useful to us all, to know the full citation for this reference. Thanks, and let me know if you ever come through Vancouver... Judy (Weiser)
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by subero
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by che che
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by katya deluisa Just recently returned to this site. be glad to help. My current training is focusing on adults with mental disabilities and I'm very interested in persons with Autism. It works very well with persons with strokes.
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Joyce Kliman
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by katya deluisa Just returned to this site. If you are still interested I would be glad to help. I'm currently traveling the USA and giving seminars and workshops. Will return to Central America in about two years. Who knows maybe I will be in your area at some time.
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more re: using photos in therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator 1) Please look at the "Who is Doing What, Where" Page of the main PhotoTherapy website, at: 2) Read Mark Mizen's article about using these techniques as part of "therapeutic scrapbooking" -- VERY interesting/useful article that can be downloaded (for free) as a pdf there. It's more at a "Therapeutic Photography" level, rather than formal therapy, but nevertheless has some good content... Mizen, M.B. (2003). Scrapbook photo albums are therapeutic for Alzheimer's patients. Creative Memories (online publication), at: 3) please look through the readings on the "Recommended Readings" page (this page has nearly tripled in length over the past month, as I finally had time to get the rest of the listings up there). There are MANY on there relating to this subject... hope these additional suggestions are useful, Judy Weiser, Administrator
Link: "Who's Doing What, Where" Page of PhotoTherapy Techniques Website
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Glenn Omura http://www.fastcompany.com/online/14/zaltman.html A more serious description is in his book: Glenn Omura
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator The timing of your message pleases me greatly because Gerry has just emailed me that he's sending me a copy of his newest book... I think from reading your message that perhaps you think we, in this field, are not already aware of him and his work and publications, and yet if you are familiar with these yourself, you will know that he has often quoted and/or referenced my writing in his own -- especially my 1993 book on PhotoTherapy techniques, as well as my 1988 Chapter about cross-cultural applications of these -- so I'm glad his message is getting through, even a couple decades later! His concepts relate very very closely to the basic theory underpinning both PhotoTherapy AND Therapeutic Photography practices and so I will share just one of these now: "Images can become very effective objects through which the process of surfacing hidden or unconscious thoughts is enacted. "What a person notices [in a picture] will always mirror the inner map that she or he is unconsciously using to organize and understand what the senses are perceiving" [quoting Weiser, 1988 and also 1993, in Zaltman and Coulter's 1994 article "Using the ZMET to Understand Brand Images" there are numerous other quotes I could show you but I think the above will suffice in informing you that I, and my students, are not unaware of Gerry Zaltman's ground-breaking work -- it relates directly to our work on similar meaning-making-through-photographic-imagery processes... as he says, "The first premise is that most human communication is nonverbal" [I will put another excerpt at the end of this message so that students who come across this later, will see that text also...] In fact I referenced him recently when I was hired by a major British Photo-Portrait Company to Consult re: their desire to attract more customers via their specialized way of marketing... i.e., our fields greatly overlap... and yes a lot of us already know this. I want to explain that I'm saying this now, because of what I think is an assumption you have made that we were all previously unaware of his work/publications until your message "informed" us... I base this on the "this guy's been doing this for years" intro to your posting -- and please, I'll be the first to admit that determining emotional intention from the reading of digital typing, is usually not a good way to be sure of the "tone" of the message -- so if I have mis-read your reason for stating it that way, I sincerely apologize in advance!! It's just that we who work in this field, usually DO know the foundations and history of our literature -- and that of others, whose work connects with our own.. and in some cases, ours actually has informed theirs, rather than the other way around... However, I just now realized that I did not list his publication on the "Recommended Readings" page of my website and this I will correct soon -- thanks for giving me the opportunity to notice this! (and maybe that's where you got the assumption that we did not yet know of him...) I have invited Gerry Zaltman to read your message (and my reply) -- hopefully he will now post a response of his own here!! regards, and read the other quotations below if you wish... Judy Weiser more excerpts from Zaltman, quoting/referencing Weiser; contact me for full citation details "Many metaphors are mental images and, as discussed, the majority of these images are visual (Arnheim, 1969; Kosslyn et al., 1990). One means by which individuals can communicate their visual metaphors is via pictures, for example, photographs, pictures in magazines, drawings, or artwork. Pictures typically represent basic concepts and therefore are useful tools for understanding consumers, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Pictures, then, can serve as entry points for exploring other consumer concepts and represent a natural and efficient way for consumers to convey higher order constructs (Weiser, 1988; Ball and Smith, 1992). Some clinical psychologists use a client's photographs as a central part of the therapeutic counseling process (Entin, 1981; Krauss and Fryrear, 1983; Weiser, 1988)" -- and -- "Deep Structures of Thought Can Be Accessed. All consumers have relevant conscious thoughts that they need special help in articulating. Additionally, all consumers have relevant hidden thoughts: ideas they are not aware of possessing but are willing to share once discovered. A sixth premise is that these hidden or deep structures can be accessed. A variety of techniques such as those used in art therapy, and especially phototherapy, can be very effective in surfacing such thoughts (Weiser, 1993; Ziller, 1990). What a person notices [in a picture] will always mirror the inner map that she or he is unconsciously using to organize and understand what the senses are perceiving (Weiser, 1993).
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Glenn Omura I did search your posted literature and saw no references to Zaltman and did not see a reference to his work in this thread. I was hoping to share some information that perhaps regular readers might appreciate. My contribution was in no way meant to suggest that you or your readers are stupid, while admitting that I myself was ignorant of the body of work in phototherapy and therapeutic photography until stumbling over it just a few days ago. I have no problem in admitting ignorance. I learn new things every day. I was thrilled to find this discussion board, thinking that the collective experience might be able to shed light on one of my other areas of ignorance (posted elsewhere). My objective in posting on this thread was to try to give back by sharing some something since I asked for something. I'm sorry it was interpreted as having some other intention or tone. I should have simply posted factually.
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator In response to your message saying that you "did search your posted literature and saw no references to Zaltman and did not see a reference to his work in this thread".... Let me begin with a much-owed apology -- you're absolutely right -- it wasn't there (before today)!!! So I want to now apologize for my "attitude" and thank you for calling my attention to the lapse of not having included some of Zaltman's publications most relevant for our field, and other related info about him, onto my website. No wonder you figured we had not heard of Zaltman!! So, yes, you are right: I did "mis-read" you at first -- especially since e-mail "tone" is often so difficult to read in a message when you don't already know the sender... So I thought I might let you know that earlier today I rectified both errors! (not exactly the way that I had planned to spend my Sunday, but.... in my mind necessary to fix once I realized the missing info was not there... There are now three new citations for Zaltman's most relevant publications for our field showing on the "Recommended Readings" page of my website! And I also added a paragraph about him onto the "Who is Doing What, Where" page of my website (had to create a new Section and "Header" for it, but it was important to do so!). On both web-pages, his inclusion necessitated me revising the category he fits into, because it did not yet have a section for people/publications from the "business world" that might relate closely with the therapy world! Hopefully I can later add other writings/people to these Sections, as this new 'branch' continues along -- unfortunately it's at the very bottom of the page, but at least it's there now! The old wording for the Section his writing fits into, on the "Recommended Readings" page for the Section he fits into best, used to be: Now it's this way: Then into that Section, I added these three publications below (and then added a parenthetical at the end of each that says: "[involves some of Weiser's Photo-Projective questioning techniques]": Zaltman, G. (2003). How customers think: Essential insights into the mind of the market (What consumers can't tell you and competitors don't know). Harvard Business School Press. Zaltman, G. (1997). Rethinking market research: Putting people back in. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(4), 424-437 . Zaltman, G, & Coulter, R. (1995). Seeing the voice of the customer: Metaphor-based advertising research. Journal of Advertising Research 35(4), 35-51. So I actually started an entire new Section for him on that page! So, now there's a third Section as of today (in addition to "PhotoTherapy" and "Therapeutic Photography") that is for those using photos: Whew! that revised Section Title is awfully wordy -- but at least now it is also quite clear.... So, thanks to you, I have now rectified an embarrassing oversight of neglecting to include the important work of a colleague -- and hopefully you'll continue to stay in touch by reading the site (perhaps attending the International Conference next year?), and also maybe keeping me in mind when considering Consulting work that might be relevant (I do all sorts of Consulting to businesses in many countries, which have nothing at all to do with therapy directly!)... feel free to correspond "back-channel" for more one-to-one discussions -- I'm at: best regards, Judy
Link: http://www.phototherapy-centre.com/widww.htm
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Allison Drader Thanks, Allison Drader LPN
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Re: magazine photo collage therapy with Late stage Alzheimer's
Posted by Judy Weiser, Administrator Thanks for your message -- I'm curious how you found this page (for posting your message) because if you came to this Discussion Group from its own main page, you will have seen that it is actually part of the main website "PhotoTherapy Techniques in Counseling and Therapy", at: On that site are pages of "recommended readings" -- there is also a page for "who is doing what, where" and "related links". Go to those pages and use the "find" command of your browser to type "Alzheimer" and you will see more info (though not all is about collage work)... Also, there is a lot of photo-collage done within the art therapy field -- perhaps use Google and type "art therapy photo collage" and see what results appear... (for example, Landgarten's book "Magazine Photo Collage"!!!) Judy (Weiser), R. Psych., A.T.R.
Link: PhotoTherapy Techniques in Counseling and Therapy
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