Film/Video-Based Therapy and Trauma

Book excerpt: This book uses film/video-based therapy to help build resilience in facing personal, communal, national, and global trauma triggers. Offering a rich and diverse range of perspectives on trauma, this volume advocates positive social change using therapeutic techniques in filmmaking as well as film/video-based therapy, in conjunction with expressive art therapies such as drama, dance, music, painting, drawing, and more. Chapter authors address issues in one’s home, community, country, and the world using integrative medicine and advocacy using film/video-based therapy and digital storytelling. The book highlights psychological trauma and how one can cope with the overwhelming triggers in today’s world. It represents an articulate and comprehensive analysis of the ways in which traumatic human experience impacts, and is modified by, film and video media. Representing a rich and diverse range of perspectives on trauma through the lens of a camera, the authors document important examples of moments in which artistic expression becomes human resilience. Demonstrating how the language of film can facilitate watching, processing, and discussing images of trauma in therapy, in the home, in the community, and in the world, this volume will be of interest to educators and mental health practitioners with an interest in advancing psychotherapy and counseling techniques.