Cinema as alchemy for healing and transformation: Using the power of films in psychotherapy and coaching

Abstract

As clients respond to movies emotionally, their reactions reflect their inner world. Using Cinema Alchemy, psychotherapists and coaches make use of this reflection by using movies as an adjunct to traditional methods. Films draw a client into the viewing experience, but at the same time - often more easily than in real life - afford a unique opportunity to retain a perspective outside the experience, the observer's view. This allows the viewing experience to become a catalyst for the therapeutic or coaching process. "Movies affect us powerfully because the synergistic impact of music, dialogue, lighting, camera angles, and sound effects enables a film to bypass ordinary defensive censors in us" (Fischoff, 2006). As one measure of just how powerful motion pictures have become, we should consider how some sociologists, psychologists, politicians, and clerics complain that movies are changing the way society, especially children, view themselves and their world (Mitry, 2000). Such critics point out that in an effort to appeal to the basest elements of human nature, many movies overemphasize graphic violence and sex. The classic Bandura experiment with a Bobo doll showed how imitation on a screen is powerful in changing behavior. Eighty-eight percent of the children, who watched a video where a model would aggressively hit a doll, subsequently imitated the aggressive behavior. Eight months later, 40% of the same children reproduced the violent behavior observed in this experiment (Bandura, 1973, p. 72). It is true that many films play to the lowest common denominators - the base human instincts and desires. These movies can end up serving as a catalyst for personal insight into the darker side of the soul. When those dark aspects are brought into the light of conscious awareness in the therapeutic process, true inner freedom is possible. It is practically impossible to number the movies that seek the opposite pole, that strive to inspire the highest human values. Like no other medium before it, the popular movie has the potential for illuminating the depth of human experience. 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.