Cinematherapy

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Berg-Cross, Jennings, Baruch · 1990

What it is

The therapist picks a commercial feature film (or clips) linked to a core issue in ongoing therapy. The client watches it, alone or with chosen others, usually as homework between sessions. The film is then discussed and tied back to the client's own life. It grew out of bibliotherapy. It is an…

Format

• Debriefing: a later session links the film to the client's history and goals and brainstorms options.
• Hesley and Hesley (2001), "videowork". Films linked to core therapy issues are assigned as between-session homework, and clients prepare to discuss them at the next session. Clients watch for the protagonist's turning point and relate it to change in themselves. Discussion starts impersonal and…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What this guide does not cover. Video modelling, video prompting and video self-modelling (structured behavioural skill training, much of it in autism) and film-making therapy are separate methods.
• Professional frame. No regulated profession or protected title for cinematherapy is described in the sources. It is used by already-licensed clinicians (counsellors, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, psychotherapists) within their own scope and their own regulator's or association's ethics code. Continuing-education courses exist, for example Wolz's course at the Zur Institute, but no credential is…
• Physical and practical safety. Keep volume at comfortable levels during in-session viewing. Avoid films with strobe or rapid flashing when a client has photosensitive epilepsy, and check the content advice. Do not leave a client alone in a darkened room after a distressing clip. Showing a whole film to a group, in a clinic, school or ward, may need a public-performance or screening licence, depending on the country.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• intellectualising. Ask for the feeling that goes with the belief.
• the client agreeing in order to please you. Ask how likely they really are to watch.
• the session turning into passive watching. Keep the clip short and the talking longer.
• one member using the film as ammunition ("that's exactly you"). Redirect to self-observation.
• clients who analyse the plot and miss their own reactions. Ask for one feeling word per key scene.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.