Patient-Made Videos as a Tool of Self-Observation Enhancing Self-Reflection in Psychotherapy: Description of the Method and a Clinical Case

Abstract

Photographs have been used in psychotherapy from the late 1970s, but patient-made videos have not been used directly as an integral part in individual psychotherapeutic treatment. We now propose a new approach, VideoTalk, using visual material as an aid in the psychotherapy process with a schema therapy framework as an example. VideoTalk builds on life-review method, providing information about the patient’s social relations, coping skills, affect/emotion regulation and schemas. This information is used as a platform for focused patient-made videos, i.e. self-talk at home in a typical problematic situation for the patient. The VideoTalk method enables documentation of the expression of mind states and dysfunctional schemas in a natural environment and related to an everyday emotional context. Subsequently, this video material is watched step by step together with the therapist. In this report, we describe the flow and functionality of the VideoTalk method through the case of a 24-year-old female patient suffering from depression and social phobia. The self-mirroring from the video facilitates self-observations of the patient’s own facial expressions, voice and body posture. We hypothesize that this new information gradually changes emotional processing, leads to better self-awareness and strengthens more functional schemas.