You just know if you get a client to watch a particular movie and the person 'gets' what's going on, you'll be able to make some progress. As with any treatment that shows promise, some proponents of video healing make extravagant claims. Cousins' experience does hint, however, that beyond elevating mood, watching movies can, in tandem with psychotherapy or other treatments, be worthwhile. Films have been out there a long time. If any unmediated healing was going to happen it would have already.
Someone has to help draw out the emotions.
If friends or family members talk about a film together, something positive could happen, connections being made to how a situation depicted in a film relates to something in real life. But you can t just jot down quick and easy ways to make a particular film 'work' and have that accomplish much. Written for therapists, the Hesleys' tome is the best of several with lists of films dealing with issues such as aging, death and parent-child relationships. Like the two guides mentioned above, it favors conventional works. But there are other reasons.