Introduction:

Cinema therapy is a form of expressive therapy, much like art or music therapy. In cinema therapy, a client will watch a movie that depicts a similar conflict to the one experienced by the client. Your therapist will “prescribe” a film for you to actively view and then you will discuss this during a session.  Simply defined, cinema therapy is an expressive, sensory-based therapy that uses movies, TV show episodes, videos and animation as therapeutic tools for growth and healing.

Goals of Cinema therapy:

• Gaining perception: sometimes, seeing things from a different point of view gives us a fresh perspective on our problems or issues. We might discover new ways of dealing with issues after watching a character deal with similar problems!
• Understanding consequences: movies can show us some of the potential consequences of a variety of activities or behaviors.
• Emotional intelligence: actors and actresses are professionals at expressing human emotion. Watching movies can help us observe and learn appropriate ways to express ourselves to others.
• Developing empathy: you might emotionally connect to some of the characters on screen, which will help you to build empathy for others.
• Diversionary activity: sometimes, engaging in the arts or watching films give us something new to focus on, and novel experiences can be therapeutic in and of themselves. Movies offer many types of sensory stimulation, like auditory and visual sensations.
• Pure enjoyment: you might enjoy movies and this can be a coping mechanism to help you get into a more positive frame of mind!

Conclusion:

The use of film as a form of therapy has shown to be very helpful for a variety of people,
including those who are suffering from mental health conditions as well as those who
are facing a specific life issue. Because of the versatility behind cinema therapy, it can be used in a formal setting, such as the office of the therapist or psychologist or even in a person’s own home.