Why Boudoir Sessions are cheaper than Therapy:

It’s no secret that Boudoir sessions don’t help fire you up and make you feel beautiful inside and out.  Boudoir sessions not only make you feel sexy because of how you look on the outside, but it also goes deeper than that into your mind and soul.  You may laugh but until you’ve had a Boudoir session of your own, you’ll never fully understand why Boudoir sessions are cheaper than therapy.  Boudoir Photography has a deeper meaning.  You know how when we go to get our hair professionally done and it seems like our hairdresser learns everything about us and we feel comfortable enough to spill our closest feelings with them? They say Hairdressers make great therapists. I will agree, what is it about them that makes us spill the beans with them so easily? Now, multiply that times ten with Boudoir photographers.  Little back story, I am also an R.N. and have practiced for over 10 years. The amount of stories I listened to from my patients don’t even come close to the stories that  I hear as a Boudoir photographer. I no longer practice as a nurse as I’m able to pursue my Boudoir passion full time now but I am also glad I still get to learn about other people’s lives.  Let’s be honest, it’s in my nature. Some would say I have too much compassion for others, but I don’t think that’s a necessarily a bad thing… I truly love learning about others stories and helping them find peace and love in their lives. I love hearing about what they did over the weekend, the wedding they went to, the new dog they got, etc.  It seems silly but I really do love hearing what makes them happy and what has made them become who they are today.

Being a Boudoir photographer, my clients need to trust me throughout the whole experience. They are placed in a vulnerable position throughout the session which is a huge fear of theirs.  They are stripping down to basically nothing while a stranger holds a camera to them.  A stranger who they trust with their confidential images and who they know will make them feel empowered and beautiful.  It is my job to make that happen. I am not telling my clients to book with me because I want their money (yes, I have to make a living), but I’m doing it because I truly care about them and want them to see themselves in a different light.  Hearing what they have to say after their session about how they had so much fun and then have them see their images for the first time and say kind words about their bodies and see some tear up, makes my heart so incredibly happy.  I am helping them change their lives. It may be small, but it’s a step towards them feeling more comfortable in their skin. I believe ALL women are beautiful. I mean, look what our bodies can do?!  We can create other humans!  Society has us thinking that once we have kids, we need to be a size zero and look, think, and act a certain way. Wrong. Women are warriors, do you see our Tiger stripes? After having children or weight gain/weight loss, we develop stretch marks. It’s NORMAL!  Do you see cellulite on our thighs? It’s NORMAL! No matter what size a person is, you will find stretchmarks and cellulite on them.  It’s the way our bodies work. I can’t stress enough how important it is to see our own flaws. I hate saying the word “flaw” because they aren’t, but I guess I should say, change our mindset to know that this is what is supposed to happen to our bodies. And I’ll tell you what, once you have confidence in yourself to accept you as you are, your whole perspective on life will change.  I promise you.  This is why Finding the right Boudoir photographer is very important.

So what is the first step in your self-love/body acceptance journey? You guessed it, a Boudoir session.  And I’m here to tell you why Boudoir sessions are cheaper than therapy.  We all have some time of Childhood trauma, correct? No ones life is perfect. Some of us have even blacked it out. I’ll tell you that from my experience, when I went through my childhood cancer/leukemia treatments as a child, I don’t remember any of it. From the stories I was told by my parents, it seemed pretty brutal with the blood transfusions, bone marrow samples, the port in my chest receiving treatments, the amount of hospital visits, chemo, radiation, you name it….I don’t remember it.  I honestly don’t remember anything before 9 years old.  I guess that’s a blessing in disguise but it may have shaped me into who I am today. Thinking back, I went through all stages of grief, the denial, anger, all of them until acceptance. When I was a teenager I didn’t want to speak of the word cancer. I was embarrassed by it, didn’t want to talk about it and when my mom brought it up, I’d get upset. Now that I’m a mom, I can understand why she’d want to talk about it. Seeing what she went through also is a lot.  Fast forward to today where I have accepted it and thank God that I’m fully cured and can be a mother to my own children. I have a second chance at life. Maybe that’s why I became a nurse, who knows but I love helping others like others helped me.  The universe works in mysterious ways like that.

But this is what I’m talking about when I say therapy.  So many people have depression or anxiety that stemmed from their past or a trauma that happened in their life, triggering it. Some people have regular visits with therapists to talk about it.  That’s what they are there for and went to school for. And I believe therapy is needed for some people.  It does get pricey though as not all insurance companies cover specific therapies, especially if it’s more of the homeopathic/natural type of therapy.  How will the companies make money if something is done naturally?  I won’t even get into that because I have learned far too much in the medical field with that topic. But sometimes all it takes is someone to listen. A shoulder to cry on.  And sometimes that happens during a Boudoir session with me. I can’t speak for other photographers, but in my experience, I have seen women both laugh and cry within the same session. It’s a release that’s needed. And I’m here for you if you need someone to listen. It also provides a safe space for you knowing that everything done during our session is completely confidential.  You can trust and confide in me that your secrets are safe with me.

Here’s an example from my most recent session. I love capturing the giggles in-between poses when I’m being my goofy self and making them feel comfortable.

To show how badly I love changing women’s lives, I had a week between clients and I was going stir crazy so I took myself downtown and wanted to capture spontaneous moments of women to help them feel empowered and beautiful that day.   There are many reasons as to why street photography is beneficial to both photographers and subjects.  With photographers, it helps us come out of our own comfort zone, learn to think on the spot, be thrown out of our element, and to be creative.  With photography subjects, it also gets you out of your comfort zone, you don’t have time to get nervous or overthink the photo session, and it helps you see yourself in a different light almost immediately.  These types of sessions downtown obviously were more modest poses because we were in public and have a completely different feel to them compared to if you were in a private studio, but they both help you in some way. They make you forget the world for a second and embrace yourself in the beauty of yourself and your surroundings.  I handed my cards out to the women that I photographed and I received this message the next day from one of them:

  That right there is why I do what I do. That little message that she sent me made my day. You don’t know the impression you make on people, so I feel it’s so important to tell people how you feel, or they’ll never know.  It may be hard to say at times but the benefits definitely outweigh the risks.  And that is why Boudoir sessions are cheaper than therapy. So the next time you are feeling nervous about booking a Boudoir session, please know that you are in good hands.  You are important to me and I will do everything in my power to make it the best experience possible.   I will listen to you and I’d love to hear about your past, your future goals, your inspirations, your fears, all of it. Because we are human and if I can somehow help you feel better about any of your fears when you leave my studio, then it was a good day (for both of us).   Here’s to overcoming your fears and taking that first step out of your comfort zone! Cheers!