Documenting their lives empowers HIV+ women

By participating in photo voice, a process by which individuals document their lives by taking pictures, empowered women living with HIV to realize their strengths.

Having human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes Aids, can create many challenges for individuals physically, socially and emotionally. A University of Missouri researcher found that participating in photo voice, a process by which individuals document their lives by taking pictures, empowered women living with HIV to realize their strengths in the midst of their struggles.

“In essence, the photo voice process is really about people sharing their voices through images,” said Michelle Teti, an assistant professor of health sciences in the MU School of Health Professions. “Many times, individuals with HIV are defined by other people when they face challenges, but this was an opportunity for the women to define themselves. They found value in being able to tell their stories and make sense of living with a serious and lifelong illness.”

Focusing on strengths

Women who have HIV face significant challenges because of the stigma associated with HIV and Aids, Teti said. Many women living with HIV are poor and are members of racial minorities, so many of them also experience discrimination, hunger, homelessness, and complex family lives and caregiving responsibilities, Teti said.

“When the women got the cameras in their hands, they chose to focus on their strengths, not just their challenging circumstances,” Teti said. “They were able to reflect on what they had overcome in their lives despite illness. Many women said such opportunities for reflection were few amid their other life responsibilities. The photo voice project really enabled these women to stop, reflect and think about their HIV and their lives in new and often positive ways.”

Teti and her colleagues facilitated photo voice projects for women living with HIV in three urban areas. The researchers instructed the women to take pictures to document how having HIV affected their lives. In small group settings, the women shared and discussed their images with each other. In addition, the women had opportunities to display their photos at public exhibits. Teti interviewed the women after they completed the projects to find out how photo voice had affected their lives.

Concrete expression

“It became apparent once we talked with women that the process really helped them access their strengths, realize what they do well and acknowledge their support systems,” Teti said. “Taking the pictures and capturing the images seemed to help them appreciate the present. Having something visual allowed them to concretely express their experiences while reflecting creatively. It gave them hope, made them feel stronger, and it motivated them.”

Teti said she would like to continue implementing and testing photo voice as a tool for women living with HIV. She has started conducting photo voice projects with other vulnerable populations, such as individuals diagnosed with cancer or autism, who also might benefit from the photography intervention.

The study, Taking Pictures to Take Control: Photo voice as a Tool to Facilitate Empowerment among Poor and Racial/Ethnic Minority Women with HIV, was published in the Journal of the Association of Nurses in Aids Care. Co-authors included Allison Kabel, an assistant professor in the MU School of Health Professions; Latrice Pichon from the University of Memphis; Rose Farnan from Truman Medical Centre in Kansas City; and Diane Binson from The University of California, San Francisco. The National Institutes of Health partially funded the study.

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Basic Yoga Postures and their Variations

1. THE COBRA Do this in easy stages. Lie down, face prone, legs tightly together and stretched back, forehead on the floor. Put your hands, palm down, just under your shoulders. Inhale and raise your head, pressing your neck back, now use your hands to push your trunk up until you are bending in a beautiful arc from your lower spine to the back of your neck. You need go no further than this. However, if you are supple enough, you can now straighten your arms completely, bend the legs at the knees and drop your head back to touch your feet. Even if your head goes nowhere near your feet, drop it back as far as possible and hold the posture with deep breathing. Come out of the posture very slowly, returning to the face prone posture. Relax with your head to one side. Repeat.

2. THE BOW This is also an extreme version of the simple bow. It is surprising how many children can do it immediately. Take it, once again, in easy stages. Lie face prone on your mat. If you are very slim have a nice thick, padded mat for this one. Inhale and bend your knees up. Stretch back with your arms and catch hold of your ankles, keeping fingers and thumbs all together on the outside. Inhale and at the same time raise your head and chest, pulling at your ankles and lifting knees and thighs off the floor. Breathe normally, trying to kick up your legs higher and lifting your head up. You are now bent like a bow, balancing the weight of your body on your abdomen. You can stop right here but if you can still stretch further, then slide your hands down your legs, lift them higher, keep the knees together and pull back as much as you can. Hold for a few normal deep breaths, then relax back to the face-prone position, head to one side.

3. THE SHOOTING BOW In Sanskrit this is known as Akarna Dhanurasana and one leg is drawn up like a shooting bow. Sit with both legs stretched out in front and back straight. Reach forward with both hands and clasp your feet, catching the right foot with the left hand and the left foot with the right hand. Inhale, bend the left knee and pull the foot across the body, close to your chest, pointing the elbow up and twisting the body slightly to the right. The left hand stays firm and tight, holding the right foot. Hold posture with normal breathing, release slowly, and relax. Repeat on other side. In the beginning it is enough to hold the bent left leg with the right hand. When this is easy, stretch down and hold the left foot with the right hand. Continue to pull on the left foot, lifting it higher on each exhalation.

Basic Yoga Postures and their Variations

1. THE COBRA Do this in easy stages. Lie down, face prone, legs tightly together and stretched back, forehead on the floor. Put your hands, palm down, just under your shoulders. Inhale and raise your head, pressing your neck back, now use your hands to push your trunk up until you are bending in a beautiful arc from your lower spine to the back of your neck. You need go no further than this. However, if you are supple enough, you can now straighten your arms completely, bend the legs at the knees and drop your head back to touch your feet. Even if your head goes nowhere near your feet, drop it back as far as possible and hold the posture with deep breathing. Come out of the posture very slowly, returning to the face prone posture. Relax with your head to one side. Repeat.

2. THE BOW This is also an extreme version of the simple bow. It is surprising how many children can do it immediately. Take it, once again, in easy stages. Lie face prone on your mat. If you are very slim have a nice thick, padded mat for this one. Inhale and bend your knees up. Stretch back with your arms and catch hold of your ankles, keeping fingers and thumbs all together on the outside. Inhale and at the same time raise your head and chest, pulling at your ankles and lifting knees and thighs off the floor. Breathe normally, trying to kick up your legs higher and lifting your head up. You are now bent like a bow, balancing the weight of your body on your abdomen. You can stop right here but if you can still stretch further, then slide your hands down your legs, lift them higher, keep the knees together and pull back as much as you can. Hold for a few normal deep breaths, then relax back to the face-prone position, head to one side.

3. THE SHOOTING BOW In Sanskrit this is known as Akarna Dhanurasana and one leg is drawn up like a shooting bow. Sit with both legs stretched out in front and back straight. Reach forward with both hands and clasp your feet, catching the right foot with the left hand and the left foot with the right hand. Inhale, bend the left knee and pull the foot across the body, close to your chest, pointing the elbow up and twisting the body slightly to the right. The left hand stays firm and tight, holding the right foot. Hold posture with normal breathing, release slowly, and relax. Repeat on other side. In the beginning it is enough to hold the bent left leg with the right hand. When this is easy, stretch down and hold the left foot with the right hand. Continue to pull on the left foot, lifting it higher on each exhalation.