I vividly remember sitting cross-legged on the living room floor, watching Shrek for the first time. After the epic musical number at the end, I immediately rewound the VHS tape and started it all over again. Something in the plot gripped me as an eight-year-old. I didn’t have words for what at the time, but something within this story resonated and drove me to rewind, rewind, rewind. Today, I see how every time I loaded that tape back into the family VCR, I found comfort in the total acceptance Shrek and Fiona showed each other by the movie’s end. Even more so, I found myself enamored by the self-acceptance they learned to show themselves. 

“Films have a consuming power that can make us feel like we’re living the experience of the characters we see.”

This movie, masterfully delivered with heaps of comic relief, affected me deeply as a child and still does. It offers hope that I might also learn that even the ugliest parts of me don’t disqualify me from love, and I can give that love to myself. 

No matter the genre, films have a consuming power that can make us feel like we’re living the experience of the characters we see, or at least remind us of a time in our lives when we’ve felt the same. And that’s why we love them. With every element playing a vital role—the performances, dialogue, lighting, colors, and score—movies are art in motion, humanity unfolding on-screen. 

Films are an escape many of us are fond of. Perhaps that’s because cinema, in its multilayered magic, compels us to stop and feel. Movies bring us on a voyage into a story, but we don’t have to stop there. When we allow ourselves to be fully drawn in and take note of how we are affected, films can help us learn how to navigate the reality that awaits us when the credits roll. Movies can be instruments in our real-life healing. 

“Films can help us learn how to navigate the reality that awaits us when the credits roll.”

There’s a tool called “cinema therapy” that can help us glean all we can from films. Professors of psychology Linda Berg-Cross and Pamela Jennings define cinema therapy as “a therapeutic technique that involves having the therapists elect commercial films for the client to view alone or with specified others.” 

While cinema therapy is a technique awaiting additional research, reviews of its efficacy suggest that when we use movies as a self-discovery tool for personal growth and healing, films could give us a window into how we engage with our real lives. 

The multi-sensory storytelling of cinema can reach us even on a neurological level. In the field of study coined neurocinematics, Princeton University neurologist Uri Hasson seeks to satisfy his curiosity about how visual media affects the brain. His findings overlap with research published in the Berghahn Journals that suggest that when we resonate with a character’s plight in a movie, we’re invited to hold space for those wearisome emotions ourselves. From the safety of our couch, we can cycle through those sensations empathetically, discover where those feelings lie in our present reality, and practice working through them. 

“When we resonate with a character’s plight in a movie, we’re invited to hold space for those wearisome emotions ourselves.”

Consider the story of Disney Pixar’s Inside Out. Throughout the film, we follow an upbeat tween, Riley, and her band of personified emotions. Every character tries to keep Riley’s happiness intact in the face of a challenging move to a new city. If we notice through our tears at the end, Riley finally allows herself to not be okay. She learns expressing her grief isn’t shameful and finds release. Perhaps there’s an invitation within this last scene to give ourselves the same permission in whatever way it may personally apply. In this way, cinema therapy is a tool to help us integrate a story’s message into our own lives. 

Dr. Birgit Wolz utilizes cinema therapy with her clients in a method she calls “cinema alchemy.” Cinema alchemy involves three approaches: 

  1. Evocative – recognizing when a movie resonates with you and asking why. 
  2. Prescriptive – prescribing a specific movie that centers on the theme related to your therapeutic goals or helps you understand your current circumstances. 
  3. Cathartic – selecting films you know will make you laugh or cry to intentionally trigger the release of relieving hormones.

If we wanted to apply Wolz’s evocative approach, the next time a movie resonates, consider asking questions like:

  • Where do I see myself in this story? 
  • What about this character draws me to them? Is this the kind of person I want to be? What are those qualities, and how can I implement them? 
  • This film gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. What in this movie do I want? Is there a dream here I didn’t know I wanted until I saw it play out on-screen? 

Getting curious as to why we like the movies we do is a powerful way to allow art to mirror who we are back to us, giving us a window into what’s inside. 

“Following a story that addresses an overarching theme of what we’re working through can be helpful in safely engaging the theme itself.”

In the prescriptive approach, we can seek films that cover experiences we’re grappling with, allowing us to make space for our emotions surrounding that topic. Maybe, at a certain point in the healing process, this looks like watching movies about marital tension or addiction or adventure films where characters face their greatest fears. Following a story that addresses an overarching theme of what we’re working through can be helpful in safely engaging the theme itself. 

With the comfort of narrative structure—beginning, middle, and end—we can make better sense of our circumstances by seeing our shared experiences play out on-screen. After watching, consider externally processing with your therapist, partner, or close friend. Journal about the movie’s subject, write down quotes that stick out, rewatch significant scenes, and pull details from the narrative that resonate. What we wrap in language, we can integrate into our lives. 

“What we wrap in language, we can integrate into our lives.”

Before clicking play, however, check in with yourself to ensure you can tolerate the emotions these selected films might elicit. If anything becomes too much, consider hitting pause or revisiting the film at a later time. What makes cinema therapy a tool we can wield with wisdom is allowing the art form to affect us to the degree we feel most comfortable, turning it off if necessary.

Finally, according to Wolz, a cathartic approach to movies looks like knowing when you need a good laugh or cry and putting on a film you know will meet you where you’re at. Both laughing and crying positively affect the hormonal balance of our brains to release endorphins, relieve stress, and spike the feel-good chemical dopamine. 

It behooves us to keep one list of movies we know will give us a hearty belly laugh and one we know will get us to shed a few tears. It’s for the love and care of our brains, and it’s cinema therapy at its most comforting. 

Whether noting what resonates, intentionally selecting stories we can relate to or prescribing ourselves a much-needed laugh or cry, watching films through a lens of cinema therapy can activate our empathy and impact us profoundly—all while we snack on some popcorn. It’s no secret: we humans love stories, and the ones we see unravel on-screen could aid us in our growth journeys. Cinema therapy could be the tool that highlights our next step of healing.

Cheyanne Solis is a writer from California. When she’s not planning weddings or acting like a grandpa by bird-watching in the park with a copy of the Sunday Times, she is falling into fascination about the human experience, working to write words to wrap around it all.