One of the hidden but powerful aspects of family photography that mums and most photographers rarely consider is how it can help us raise children with stronger confidence in their own worth and abilities.

Psychologists and experts have done some work in recent decades exploring the link.

We capture the unmistakable bond between a Mother and her children

A revealing study was conducted in 1975 with a group of fourth graders at a Tennessee school by Tulane University. During a five week period, the children took Polaroid instant photos of themselves with provided cameras in a variety of assigned poses, compositions and expressing various emotions.

The children worked with the printed images of themselves and created scrapbooks once a week over those five weeks. Testing of the students and teachers at the conclusion of study revealed a significant increase of 37 percent in the students’ average self-esteem behaviors.

This Murfreesboro Study shows some evidence personal photography of children seen and enjoyed in a specific way can help boost a child’s self-esteem.

But how can photography, specifically family portraits…help boost your child’s self-esteem?

David Krauss, a licensed psychologist from Cleveland, Ohio says, “I think it is really important to show a family as a family unit. It is so helpful for children to see themselves as a valued and important part of that family unit. A photographer’s job is to create and make the image look like a safe holding space for kids where they are safe and protected. Kids get it on a really simple level.”

Krauss is one of the earliest pioneers in using people’s personal photography and family albums to assist in mental health counseling and therapy.

He co-authored “Photo Therapy and Mental Health” in 1983 that is considered a founding text for the use of photography in therapy.

Weiser has spent more than 20 years using all manner of personal photography to assist in the treatment process of her clients.

She is considered by many to be the foremost authority on these treatment techniques, called PhotoTherapy.

We capture that connection. The one between a Father and a Son.