It’s raining confetti, hallelujah—and if that’s not exactly how the song goes, it is the forecast this week. On Thursday, the Confetti Project, a therapeutic photography experience, makes its Washington debut during a four-day pop-up at Bethesda Row.

There’s a 100 percent chance that confetti will slip down your shirt and get tangled in your hair, and founder Jelena Aleksich hopes you’ll make the biggest mess you can with those red, purple, pink, and blue paper droplets. As she reasonably puts it: “How often does that happen? Go for it! This is the place.”

During each roughly 5-minute session, attendees will be doused with pounds of colorful confetti as Aleksich snaps photos and asks her signature question: “What do you celebrate in your life right now?”

“The confetti definitely has magical powers,” she says. “It’s nostalgic and emotive. You give people a space where they feel welcome, and where they feel comfortable being uncomfortable, and you mix that with large amounts of confetti—which most people haven’t experienced—and this release happens, this transformation. It’s for anyone who wants to experience some sort of celebration therapy.”

Aleksich launched the Brooklyn-based project in 2015. Looking back, she says, there wasn’t one “aha” moment, the sudden flash of inspiration that some entrepreneurs describe. Rather, a series of seemingly random events happened in quick succession. First, she was glitter-bombed at a party. “I just remember this gold glitter being everywhere for days—for weeks,” she describes. “And it kept making me think of that night, seeing these remnants of it in the shower, in my bed, in my hair.”

Shortly after, she saw the band OK Go at The Bowery Ballroom in New York, and confetti poured down during most of the set. By the end, you couldn’t even see the floor, Aleksich recalls—and she hungrily stuffed the tiny, rainbow-colored scraps of paper into the pockets of her leather jacket. Weeks later, on a particularly sad day, she shrugged into the jacket and slipped her hand into a pocket. “When I saw the confetti, I was so pleasantly surprised, and I just got so joyful in that moment,” she says. “That was when I first realized that anything that can change your energy instantly is really powerful.”

Around the same time, Aleksich had left her job as a graphic designer and was feeling present and inspired in a way she hadn’t in years. She had time to pay attention to her surroundings and notice details she had previously ignored—and connect the dots between what was making her happy. In addition to her newfound infatuation with confetti, Aleksich had studied psychology in school and “was always that weird kid who would ask people deep questions.” So she launched the Confetti Project, a photography series that provides a space for attendees to check in with themselves and express what they’re feeling—while bringing back the art of play.

In the past five years, Aleksich has photographed more than 4,000 people; many of the photos she’s taken live on the project’s Instagram account, which has more than 11,000 followers. She’s partnered with brands such as Renaissance Hotels and Bergdorf Goodman and, in addition to sessions at her home studio in Brooklyn, has done pop-up events in cities from Los Angeles to Dubai.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Aleksich says, “millennial women who love sparkle” are particularly drawn to the Confetti Project. The experience is certainly an Instagrammer’s dream. More specifically, people come to celebrate life and milestones like marriage, a new job, the end of chemotherapy. Some come to mark more somber milestones, like loss, a breakup, or divorce.

During the Bethesda sessions, attendees will be doused with around 3.5 pounds of confetti. Aleksich has perfected what she describes as the ideal human-to-confetti ratio: too much, and you can’t see the person’s face—plus things get slippery. Too little and, well, that problem speaks for itself.

Most people take their shoes off during sessions and go wild playing with the confetti. Though Aleksich follows her subjects’ lead, she typically suggests doing an empowerment pose and “the herbal essence,” a.k.a. shampooing confetti into your hair. She likes to end photo shoots with “snow angeling,” or lying on the ground as confetti pours down from above. And she delights in those who throw the paper scraps directly at the camera: It’s fun, “and selfishly, the photos come out really awesome.” (One to two edited photos are emailed to those who attend within a couple days, and participants also walk away with a goody bag.)

It’s impossible to dive into the confetti and not smile, Aleksich promises. “It’s very therapeutic, especially for anyone who has pent-up emotions,” she says. “It’s a cathartic way to release them. It’s impossible for someone to throw the confetti up and play with it, and not have some sort of relief happening—even if it’s just for a second.”

The Confetti Project pop-up runs at 7025 Arlington Rd., Bethesda. Thursday and Friday 4 p.m.-7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. 7025 Arlington Rd., Bethesda. $50. Reservations sold out, but walk-ins are encouraged.