Feb 14, 2022
Today’s guests are Jonathan Decker and Alan Seawright from
Cinema Therapy. 
Cinema Therapy is a hit YouTube channel in which a licensed therapist and a professional filmmaker explore what hit movies can teach us about life, love, and mental health.
Jonathan Decker is a licensed marriage and family therapist and clinical director of Mended Light, a trauma-focused counseling clinic.
Alan Seawright is a director, writer, editor, producer, and CEO of Telekinesis Entertainment.
In this interview, we discuss:
- The use of films to inspire, educate and motivate change.
- Great character examples.
- The bond between the guys.
- Cinema Therapy
- And so much more!
Here are some key points that I would advise you to concentrate on
- You can take wisdom, learning and emotional understanding from films, the writing, the use of color, the characters.
- You can manipulate film character behavior and take the positive traits to use in your own life.
- The use of stories to show abstract concepts can be a truly powerful tool to educate, inspire and motivate the audience.
- The use of humor can be a great tool to help people be encouraged to learn and understand.
- Healthy relationships and maintaining them take continual work and growth between each member.
- Each movie will speak to different people on a different level. You need to be receptive to the messages the movie is giving.
- People need to understand better and be open to change.
- Watch the film with your brain turned on. What is the message it is giving? What are you relating to? What is annoying you? What inspires? Don't look at the films as a chance to switch your brain off for two hours, but as a chance to learn, evolve and grow as a person through the story and its arc.
- Empathy is a great tool, to emphasise with the characters, but you should choose if they are worth emulating depending on the quality of the character.
- The thing that you react to in the film might be something that you need to consider in your own life.
- True heroism isn't just being big and strong. It is about being truthful, responsible and virtuous during hard times.
- Strength has many forms, and films are showing a greater range in the types in modern-day films.
- The transformation arc in a film isn't always very realistic due to time constraints but life takes more twists and turns, but the journey is always worth it.
- What you think about a film will change from person to person. You will go on your own personal journey and that is one of the greatest things about films, it gives you your own journey to go on.
- Therapy is a great tool to use but it doesn't always work the first time. You may need to find an alternative, they should guide you along with your own transformation and encourage you, but not try and change you themselves.