Has it ever happened that after watching a movie changes the way you see a certain problem, or did the movie lead you to a different perspective to deal with new situations?The advantages of cinema as a psychotherapeutic tool are multiple, so it is increasingly used by healthcare professionals.
Film viewing allows the viewer, and therefore patients, to obtain information of a very different kind: linguistic, spatial-visual, interpersonal and intrapsiquica, that is, the one commonly known as?Cinetherapy ,, can make psychological treatment a complete, integral. and intersensory learning space.
Cinema as a psychotherapeutic tool offers many advantages
For Bruce Skalarew, psychiatrist and co-chair of the Forum for Psychanalytic Study of Film, cinematherapy followed the same steps as bibliotherapy, i. e. the use of books and reading as a clinical practice.
This doctor defines the seventh art as a tool that helps improve mental health. It also considers this therapeutic environment as a good complement to traditional therapies.
Walz explains that the use of cinema as a psychotherapeutic tool allows the psychologist to rely on image, music, colors, characters, spaces and theatrical elements. In addition, cinema has the power to facilitate self-compression and achieve what is called an “emotional shock”. In the end, this art, Walz says, helps change our habits and evolve.
“Kintherapy can be a powerful catalyst for the healing and growth of those who are open to the possibility of learning how movies affect us and offer to watch certain films with real attention. “-Birgit Walz-
How would my partner react if this problem happened to us?Sometimes movies make us put ourselves in situations we couldn’t have imagined otherwise.
We often put ourselves in the place of the characters and try to think or see through them. Does it help people on psychotherapeutic treatment introduce their thoughts, feelings and emotions?both present and future.
The first thing to do, according to Gary Solomon, one of the first psychologists to address the use of cinema as therapy, is to select films or short films that reflect the patient’s problem, that is, the situation should be as similar as possible to that of the patient. current or traumatic situation of the patient.
It is essential that the therapist and the person speak before the film is screened, this serves at the same time to understand the need for a conscious exercise of film analysis, so that the professional can recognize and examine the reactions of the patient.
“Dream as if it were eternal, and live as if it were your last day. “- James Dean-
Once the film is screened, the patient should explain the links and similarities he found between the film and his life, it is good that he uses his imagination and can identify with a character from the film (Berg-Cross, Jennings and Baruch, 1990).
One of the strengths of this technique is that it can improve patients’ social and communicative skills and serves as a practical example of situations in which empathy can develop and awareness of feelings, emotions and desires.
With this we can implement the well-known theory of the mind, that is, the ability to understand our own emotional processes and to understand and reflect on the feelings or thoughts of others, all through a sequence of images and ingenious dialogues. , thanks to the magic of cinema.
The conflicts we observe in criminal protagonists help us to set our moral values.
In addition, this technique allows you to work with specific scenes, focusing even more on the problem to be addressed. In addition, the characters can be analyzed in detail, being able to appreciate each change and detail as many times as necessary, returning and reviewing each scene. This helps to find more similarities and differences between the patient’s behavior and that of the actor.
Cinema as a psychotherapeutic tool is still somewhat unknown, although it is increasingly integrated as a complementary strategy in traditional practice, it is still not enough, however, although it works for most patients, it should be avoided with people with psychotic disorders. In these cases, film therapy is not guaranteed to provide benefits.
Metaphor governs the technique of cinema as a therapeutic tool.