About the project
Her Voice In Photos is a participatory photography project developed as an art therapy graduate thesis that examines how women in midlife engage in reflection and visual storytelling to understand and reframe their lived experiences.
The project is art therapy-informed and grounded in research on narrative identity, reflective practice, and creative processes. It is a non-clinical form of art therapy that excludes diagnosis, treatment, or therapeutic intervention. No prior artistic experience is required. Photography functions as a reflective and narrative tool rather than an artistic performance.
Her Voice In Photos is designed to prioritize accessibility, informed consent, and participant agency. Contributors retain control over what they share, how their images are contextualized, and whether their work is included in curated digital or in-person exhibitions. The project emphasizes ethical engagement, meaning-making, and participant choice throughout all stages of participation.
About Doryn Wallach
Her Voice In Photos was created by Doryn Wallach, a graduate student in Art Therapy at Syracuse University with a professional background in creative direction, design, and visual storytelling.
Doryn is a passionate amateur photographer whose practice focuses on documentary and street photography, primarily in black and white. Her images center unedited, everyday moments and lived experience rather than technical perfection. Photography functions as a reflective and narrative tool in her work, not a professional identity.
Before entering the field of art therapy, Doryn spent more than two decades as a creative entrepreneur and designer. She founded and led a nationally recognized fine jewelry brand, overseeing creative direction, branding, and business strategy. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vanity Fair, and she received the Accessories Council’s Design Excellence Award.
Alongside her design career, Doryn has consistently focused on women’s identity, mental health, transition, and emotional experience. She is also the former host and producer of It’s Not a Crisis, a podcast centered on midlife women that reached a global audience and was recognized as a Top 5 podcast on iTunes in its category.
Her graduate training in art therapy informs a trauma-informed, ethically grounded approach to participatory photography. Her work emphasizes meaning-making, consent, accessibility, and narrative agency rather than artistic skill or clinical intervention.
Doryn’s ongoing professional goal is to work with women using therapeutic photography approaches that support trauma-informed mental health care, reflection, and narrative integration in both individual and community-based settings. She is also committed to developing collaborative projects with organizations and businesses that bring women’s lived experiences into public view through curated digital and in-person photography exhibitions, fostering witnessing, awareness, and understanding among diverse audiences.
Doryn will be completing her clinical training in New York and holds additional certifications in women’s mental health, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and motivational interviewing; a Micromasters in maternal and child public health, and is a credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor Trainee in New York State.
Learn more about Doryn’s professional background on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dorynwallach
