IC11 Short Course 04 - Using Movies in Ericksonian Psychotherapy - Daniel Bass, Dipl. Psych

Description: This short course explores how films and movie clips can be used as experiential tools in psychotherapy rather than illustrations or homework assignments alone. Participants learn how movies naturally evoke trance, emotion, and identification, and how those processes can support reframing, resource activation, and indirect change. Through theory, clinical examples, and well-chosen film scenes, the session shows how therapists can adapt movies to fit client goals, deepen engagement, and work creatively without lecturing or interpretation.

Syllabus Description: Movies are complex multisensory stories reflecting a specific world, transporting messages and solutions in order to provide the viewer with the possibility of identifying with the movie characters. Viewers get absorbed in movies and empathize, recognize consciously or subconsciously one’s own central topics in life. They provide the possibility of being catalysts for developmental processes that can be used in psychotherapy. In this presentation participants will learn about the processes of watching movies and the transfer into therapy.

Educational Objectives:

1. Describe several techniques of how movies can be used to elicit therapeutic processes.
2. Describe a method of how therapists can identify and apply therapeutically useful movies.

*Sessions may be edited for content and to preserve confidentiality*