Writer: Ioanna Balafa
Cinematherapy is
known in America and England for more than twenty years and has recently made
its appearance in Greece. It was born as a form of therapy in 1995 when the
psychotherapist Gary Solomon published the book «Watch this movie and call me
in the morning». It’s about two hundred films and describes how a film story
can act therapeutically helping us find solutions to our problems arguing that
movies are about everybody’s life and their roots are located at times when
primitive man was narrating stories around the campfire .
Movies “play” with our dreams and imagination as much as psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Consequently the Cinema can be a valuable auxiliary tool in various therapeutic procedures of disorders and severe mental health problems such as depression, obsessive-compulsive and bipolar disorder.
In the film heroes we many times encounter ourselves, we compare our lives to theirs and we gradually approach our problems from different perspectives. Movies depicts images and narratives waking feelings which carry us away and are imprinted in our minds even long after the end of the film.
Movies “play” with our dreams and imagination as much as psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. Consequently the Cinema can be a valuable auxiliary tool in various therapeutic procedures of disorders and severe mental health problems such as depression, obsessive-compulsive and bipolar disorder.
In the film heroes we many times encounter ourselves, we compare our lives to theirs and we gradually approach our problems from different perspectives. Movies depicts images and narratives waking feelings which carry us away and are imprinted in our minds even long after the end of the film.
The films through the conditions of drama, humor, metaphor, mystery or suspense reflect events and stories inspired by life itself, often by exaggeration of course that serves visual pleasure (eg the films of Alfred Hitchcock who believed firmly to psychoanalysis / cinema bond which was strongly reflected in his films, highlighting the human phobias and obsessions).
A properly trained therapist towards cinematherapy can use the film characters to find identification points with the patient who respectively can come to the point of discussing the film through a systemic approach by comparing and using visual stimuli.
Family, self-destruction, religion, guilt, stigma, revenge, insecurity, anger, rage, daily stress, anxiety disorders. All sources of problems are considered carefully. This form of therapy helps the patient to deal with a specific problem and is always consistent with the phases of the therapeutic process. It works methodically and with targeted questions such as counseling psychology.
Cinematherapy
can be applied individually or in groups. It’s given gradually to the patients
the ability to identify the problem through the film characters, to identify,
to discuss and desire the solution through therapy. It offers alternative
approaches and emotional relief in combination with other therapies.
Finally, the patient is concentrated on his thoughts, his feelings and his body reactions. How many times have we said that a movie scene takes our breath away .. Sweat, tachycardia or on the contrary, physical relaxation and euphoria. We cry or we laugh and the unconscious thought becomes conscious leading to the conquest of self-awareness through laughter or crying. As a part of treatment in appropriate cases with the appropriate and well-educated therapists, the watch of a film can be considered as an unprecedented cinema experience.
Finally, the patient is concentrated on his thoughts, his feelings and his body reactions. How many times have we said that a movie scene takes our breath away .. Sweat, tachycardia or on the contrary, physical relaxation and euphoria. We cry or we laugh and the unconscious thought becomes conscious leading to the conquest of self-awareness through laughter or crying. As a part of treatment in appropriate cases with the appropriate and well-educated therapists, the watch of a film can be considered as an unprecedented cinema experience.
