Adolescence age is characterized by a heated argument between parents and adolescents arising from schoolwork, house rules, rights, an attempt by adolescents to gain autonomy, and behavioral standards. School-based counseling through movie therapeutic techniques has proven effective in reducing conflict between adolescents and parents. Movie therapy allows the counselor to use movies as texts for therapeutic discussion to teach behavior change, reducing anxiety and conflict. Through connecting with sound effects and images present in the movie, adolescents and parents become emotionally engaged and change their behavior.
The study conducted by Tannous & Shechtman (2019) involved 600 adolescents’ participants from eleven schools in Arab. The individuals were divided into three groups, two treatment groups of adolescents counseled without movie therapy, another group counseled with a movie therapy, and a control group without treatment. Participants of treatment with movie therapy were asked to share their experience with the movie. Participants in the control group discussed social issues relevant to the classroom with their teacher and did not discuss the conflict with parents.
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The study results showed that participants in the two treatments reported favorable results outcome in the level and number of conflicts, arguments, and well-being compared to participants in the control group. Students who participated in the treatment reported reduced conflict with their mothers and fathers (Tannous & Shechtman, 2019). There was no significant difference in the number of conflicts reported among adolescents in the control group. Movie therapy was effective since young people are not always open to group process therapy. Also, many adolescents in the Arab culture are reluctant to take counseling since their culture forbids sharing problems with people outside the family setup. Movie therapy promotes identification and project resources leading to a successful counseling process. This study's major limitation is generalization since Tannous & Shechtman (2019) conducted their study in a unique population of Arab culture. Adolescents from other regions might have different attitudes towards movies. There were limited studies to prove the effectiveness of movie therapy in school-based counseling. Future studies need to explore in-depth the unique contribution of movie therapy among adolescents.
Article Critique
How is this work useful to me as an aspiring counselor?
Information provided in this article is essential for anyone aspiring to become a counselor. The article teaches on the benefit of applying movie therapy to solve a conflict among adolescents and their parents. The study is educative to counselors dealing with students from Arab culture who are discouraged from sharing their family problems with strangers. By applying movie therapy in school-based counseling, Arab students get motivated to share their problems and build a positive relationship with their parents (Tannous & Shechtman, 2019) . The universality of movie content allows students to form group cohesion and open their problems to colleagues and therapist.
Counselors in school settings deal with diverse students, including disruptive behavior, learning disability, and aggressions. Sometimes, adolescent-parents conflict is not visible among normative students despite having a detrimental effect on the child. The current study teaches individuals aspiring to address adolescent-parents conflict among Arabs uniquely. Counselors should focus more on empowering these adolescents, especially females, and enhancing their psychological growth. The article also teaches counselors the benefit of using movie therapy when conducting group counseling with adolescents. Movie therapy helps counselors achieve success since the therapy integrates students with diverse needs hence evading stigma.
How does this work contribute to the field of counseling?
T annous and Shechtman's work contributes significantly to the field of counseling, especially in student-based counseling at school. The Counselling field has experienced challenges in implementing an effective strategy for dealing with rising conflicts between parents and adolescents. The article has presented the counseling field with a new school intervention domain when dealing with Arabs adolescents. The study provides detailed information on how counselors can effectively apply movie therapy when counseling adolescents who conflict with their parents. In the past years, the Counseling field faced challenges when providing therapeutic counseling to Arabs students whose culture limits them from sharing their problems with outsiders. Understanding an individual's culture enhances the adoption of movie therapy in a group. School-based counseling groups involve individuals with related problems; thus, universality is crucial in building cohesion, encouraging self-disclosure and comfort when dealing with individuals from a specific culture. Through the information provided in this work, the counseling field learns how to integrate movie therapy in school-based counseling effectively. Through movie therapy, the counseling field learns better ways for dealing with stigma issues experienced by adolescents when sharing their conflicting encounter with their parents. Such a heterogeneous approach helps the counseling field learn how to avoid stigma linked to problem-focused groups. Therefore, the work presented by Tannous & Shechtman (2019) is thus essential for counseling since they teach on the benefit of integrating movie therapy in school-based counseling groups to solve the issue of conflict among adolescents and parents.
What new research do the authors generate by writing this article?
Tannous & Shechtman (2019) developed new research on applying movies in school-based counseling therapy to solve adolescent-parents conflict. Past studies focused on school-based group therapy, which is not entirely successful, especially when dealing with adolescents' from Arabic culture where counseling is discouraged. The study has generated new research on movie therapy, which needs to be explored in depth. Futures studies need to research movie therapy more when dealing with other cultures apart from Arabic to understand its unique contribution.
What limitations were found in the current research/study?
The study identified several limitations that future studies need to address. First, the study conducted by Tannous & Shechtman (2019) makes a generalization based on a limited unique population of Arab culture. This generalization affects the therapy's effectiveness since adolescents from other regions might have different attitudes towards movies. Second, there were limited studies to prove the effectiveness of movie therapy in school-based counseling. Lastly, since the movie therapy is conducted within a school set up, participants are allowed to watch only a section of the movie. There is a possibility the same participants might exhibit different behavior and attitude after watching the entire movie. Future studies need to explore in-depth the unique contribution of movie therapy among adolescents.
Conclusion
In summary, the article has provided detailed information on the benefit of adapting movie therapy in school-based counseling groups to reduce parent-adolescents conflict. The study provides detailed information on how counselors can effectively apply movie therapy when counseling adolescents who conflict with their parents. School counselors learn the movie's unique contribution to treatment when providing group counseling to students who have relational challenges with their parents. The article has presented the counseling field with a new school intervention domain when dealing with Arabs adolescents. The amount of time taken in movie allow adolescents to connect with characters and topic and gain the courage to open up their problems. However, future studies need to establish the effectiveness of movie therapy from a diverse population.
Reference
Tannous Haddad, L., & Shechtman, Z. (2019). Movies as a Therapeutic Technique in School‐Based Counseling Groups to Reduce Parent-Adolescent Conflict. Journal of Counseling & Development , 97 (3), 306-316. DOI: 10.1002/jcad.12270
