MY UNIVERSE PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM
IVANA DOSTÁLOVÁ, D.Sc., Ph.D., PGCert
Founder, Clinical Scientist, Neurobiologist, Photographer
Therapeutic Photography Counselor & Facilitator, Visual Awareness, Language & Art of Seeing Teacher
The Author and Developer of the Own Scientific / Psychotherapeutic Method of Photographic and visual inquiry (PESORM* Photography-Evoked Self-Other-Relations Mindfulness~Visual~Photographic Inquiry*)
10 years experience clinical science ~ 10 years experience professional photographer ~ research and photography awards ~ PhD neurobiology and physiology ~ PGCert Therapeutic Photography Robert Gordon University Scotland ~ Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness and Positive Brain Neuroplasticity Student
“Camera is a tool that teaches people how to see without a camera.” — Dorothea Lange “
“And I teach people how to “see” — themselves, the world around them, themselves in the world around them, themselves in relation to others. I capture life every day; life as it is, and life as I wish it was, as I see it. I take care of people’s mental health and well-being through photography and I help through photography wherever verbal language is insufficient or verbal communication is not possible.”
Ivana is the founder of My Universe Photography; consultant, facilitator, photographer and neurobiologist with ten years of experience in Czech hospitals as a clinical scientist (neuroendocrinology), freelance photographer (@idostalova27) for ten years, who founded and managed her own photography company Voitopi (www.voitopi.com) and photographic projects. For her work, she received awards in the fields of science and photography (double winner of the Czech Press Photo nomination and 2nd Place, Sony World Photography Awards 2023 Shortlisted, global IPA Awards 2022 Official Selection Photographer, global IPA Awards 2023 7-times Official Selection Photographer, global IPA Awards 2023 Honorable Mention People, global IPA Awards 2023 Honorable Mention Self Study, global IPA Deeper Perspective Award 2023 Honorable Mention Community, …).
“In the paragraph above, I originally wrote “with an interesting life path and story” … but then I realized that every human path and story is interesting, mine as well as yours. My life story is … and I can’t wait to see yours. My life’s path is unconventional and daring, I look “differently”, but I continue along it because I feel that it opens up to something completely new. to a new perspective and approach, to ourselves, others and the world around us, within us.”
Ivana was introduced to photography as a child when her father showed her analog photography. She has been photographing all her life, but a major turning point in her life’s journey in 2013 led her to the professional path of a photographer. Even in photography, Ivana did not deny her nature as a scientist and experimenter, and began to introduce new approaches to photography based on a non-judgmental, unconditionally accepting and supportive approach with elements of free expression. From there, it was only a step to the fact that Ivana began to discover and study the observant, mindful, meditative and therapeutic potential of photography, firstly directly with herself and gradually with others. And from there it was already a step towards the fact that Ivana decided to connect her research in the field of photography with the knowledge of experts abroad and bring it to the Czech Republic. Ivana completed Therapeutic Photography PGCert at Robert Gordon University in Scotland, the first program of its kind in the world, and is one of the first in the world to be certified and academically qualified in Therapeutic Photography.
In the field of science, Ivana collaborated on grant scientific projects in the team of Prof. Karel Pacak (now National Institute of Health, Clinical Neuroendocrinology, Bethesda; Prof. Pacak is the world’s most cited scientist in his field) and of Prof. Martin Haluzik (now head of the Intitute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Diabetology Center), she was getting an education with Prof. Urban Ungerstedt (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm; member of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology and Medicine). She lectured at Czech and foreign scientific conferences, taught at the 2nd Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University, is the author-co-author of 30 scientific articles in high-impact journals https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/I-Dostalova-39182605 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=dostalova+i https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=krykorkova+i For clinical research of the pathophysiology and neuroendocrinology of eating disorders, she was nominated for the Česká hlava award (2003) and received the award of the Czech Medical Society for publication of the year (2007). In photography, she mainly focuses on documentary and psychosocial projects and art photography, as a photographer she also worked on projects for large companies in the Czech Republic and abroad. For a long time, he cooperates with the world’s largest online gallery Saatchi Art, the world leader in the online sale of works of art. CV available here: https://cz.linkedin.com/in/ivana-dostalova-20a54745
Selected Trainings: The Professional Course in Positive Neuroplasticity Training (Dr. Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Berkeley, UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center) (2024), (Ruth Davey, UK) (2022), Training in Expressive Semiology and visual expression according to research of Arno Sterna (Martina Weissgerber, FR) (2021-2022).
“I have been dedicated to attentive photography and the attentive photographic process, “photographic science”, research of photographic visual language and photographic (both mental and visual process), introspection via photography, and the therapeutic potential of photography for a long time, now I would like to gradually bring it to the Czech Republic for support, help, growth, healing, for work on mental balance, self-love, self- acceptance, relaxation and joy of life to all. I am also a mom of two boys who knows from personal experience how important mental hygiene is to prevent burnout in today’s fast-paced, performance-oriented era, and a person who believes in Eastern philosophies, in love, likes peace of mind and movement in life, and is enthusiastic about discovering all new. I combined my knowledge from the fields that I was involved in and from my life’s journey and story and I founded My Universe Photography for you, us, all of us. So that all of you can come back to yourself even in this time, find your “bubble”, your universe, your inner safe space. Photography has convinced me many times that it is a powerful tool for personal growth, healing, and self-acceptance with great therapeutic potential as a form of meditation and mindfulness. I would like to bring this deep and strong potential, hidden at first glance, now supported by scientific studies, to everyone. I’m really excited about how the ‘right pictures’ that we let come to our minds through sight can change our brains and thus change our lives.”