Film Therapy: The Benefits Of Watching Movies

It is clear that movies can arouse all kinds of emotions in us. They can make you laugh, cry, suffer and even give you the strength you need to face your problems. Then why not use this as a kind of therapy?

What is film therapy?

The people who developed psychotherapy have been able to work with all kinds of coaches, colleagues and film experts to develop a form of therapy based on television series and movies. They did this by applying the benefits they can offer in the world of coaching and psychology. Logically, this form of therapy was given the name film therapy.

However, the benefits of film therapy don’t stop with simply watching movies. A variety of tools are used, such as quotes, comments, posters, visual analysis, etc.

Hodgson and Burque focused their therapy on the implementation of coaching and positive psychology to improve the skills and abilities of people who want to learn more about and from movies from a different perspective.

Film as a psychological aid

This therapy uses film as a psychological aid for various purposes. Film is seen as an extremely effective adjunct to regular therapy, due to several factors:

• Intensity: Stories, characters and scenarios are crammed into a very small space of time.
• Duration: The length of a movie is almost as long as a therapy session.

• Learning: Movies are allegorical, just like stories and fables. You can use the cognitive effects to formulate theories about our learning capacity, creativity etc. and to promote the idea of ​​multiple intelligences.
• Identification: A lot of people have identified with a certain character from a movie. This information can be discussed further during therapy.
• Attention: The visual influence that film has promotes the way you can focus on the images.
• Social characteristics: Watching a movie and talking about it with other people makes the message more meaningful and can serve as an integrative tool during therapy.

The benefits of film therapy

The creators of film therapy argue that these techniques offer a variety of tangible benefits to the people who are exposed to them. Here are a few of them:

• Watching a movie can be very revitalizing. It gives you the chance to disconnect, to relax and to have fun.
• Film therapy uses scenes or entire movies to help people face their fears. It helps them to become aware of their own fears so that they can try to overcome those fears.
• It allows you to focus on your problems. Many movies can help you become aware of your own problems through identification and empathy.

• Film also has a purifying effect. When you watch a movie, you can experience passion without having to deal with the unwanted side effects.
• It helps you relax. By focusing your attention on a particular activity by watching a movie, it is a great way to reduce anxiety.

• It’s motivating. While watching a movie, you can be impressed by characters that help you find energy in your real life.

• Entertainment. Movies also create laughter and happiness. And there is no doubt that this has a huge impact on both your mental and physical health.
• Letting out purging tears. Sad and disturbing movies can help you find new perspectives that will help you reflect on your own attitude and change it if necessary.
• Developing creativity. The different perspectives you are exposed to when watching a movie are undoubtedly capable of changing your own mental schemas and moving you to be more creative, flexible and innovative.
• Improved personal relationships. Watching and commenting on a movie together with family and friends has enormous social and emotional value.

• It is a reflective art form. Movies make us reflect on existential, spiritual, and even lavish issues.
• It helps us deal with loss. Heartache and loss can be mitigated by films that help you get over this period.
• Film elevates, moves, inspires and admires. Thanks to the seventh art, you can become a better person.
• It improves your powers. The traits of different characters can inspire you to improve your powers.

Rest assured that film is much more than a simple art form. Film therapy has elevated films to the category of highly useful psychological aids.

There is no doubt that movies can make us happier and more complete if we give them the chance to do so.

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