VISTAS articles are made available for historical reference only and are presented "as is." ACA does not guarantee or represent that the information is current, accurate or indicative of the original or intended quality. These materials are not maintained or updated and may contain outdated or incomplete information. Readers should exercise discretion and verify information independently before relying on it. We assume no responsibility for the use or interpretation of this content.

Article 6

A Rationale for, and Application of, Using Contemporary Movies to Train Counselors

Jerry A. Mobley

Download PDF

For much of the past decade, movie clips have been used as a part of training counselors, but the explanation of the basis for the application of movies has not occurred. Any discussion needs to consider visual media learning (VML), which can give support to student learning styles and to teaching processes, and then should offer practical suggestions about using visual media to educate master’s level counselors (National Association for Media Literacy Education, 2007).

Visual media learning can be a catalyst stimulating meaningful reactions in the learning environment that can be refined and managed with significant results. In this technologically driven world (Eddy & Bracken, 2008), teaching abstract counseling concepts for several hours at a time to the next generation of professional counselors has its challenges. The issue of engaging and maintaining student interest in theories and techniques is compounded by the need for a pedagogical structure to guide the instructor’s VML information delivery as well as proficiency in media technology necessary to present the audio-visual material. Connecting movie clips to counseling theories in graduate classes and at regional, national, and international conferences has stimulated me, my students, and a host of other participants—as visual learning has suggested they would.

Visual Media Learning (VML)

Since the 1960s, VML has suggested the introduction of visual elements into the teaching/learning environment to stimulate new levels of understanding (Felton, 2008) and arouse creative connections with information being presented and within the recipients of the material. The process is not automatic; students and teachers need to be developed into visual learners and teachers. “With training and practice, people can develop the ability to recognize, interpret, and employ the distinct syntax and semantics of different visual forms” (p. 60). Using media is not enough; “listening to an iPod does not teach a person to critically analyze or create music,” and consuming TV, movies, and other visually rich materials does not equip people to “produce, analyze, and use images” (p. 60).

Visual learning tends to have two foci: training students to be more visually literate and having teachers utilize more visual material to enhance the teaching process (Damrongpanit & Reungtragul, 2013). Teaching students to sort through the visual information that bombards them in the current culture and critically evaluate what is being offered is a literacy issue that is essential and not that different from textual literacy (Felton, 2008). On the other hand, teachers can exploit the power of visual material to communicate images and concepts that compliment the traditional verbal teaching process. This discussion focuses on the second application.

Student-Centered Learning

The situation has only gotten more intense since 2008 when Eddy and Bracken said,

Current college students have grown up with a plethora of technology at their fingertips. As a result, they bring expectations to the classroom on what technology will be available to use and that indeed, faculty will use this technology to support leaning inside and outside of the classroom. (p. 126)

Students are prepared to learn in a two-dimensional world as well as the three dimensional one; they anticipate that the classroom will consist of more than a lecture.

While the specifics of the impact of learning styles on teaching styles are uncertain (Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork, 2008), the emphasis on learning styles has clarified the instructional possibilities to better present course information and allow students to utilize more of their resources to engage the material than the traditional lecture does. Student learning styles engage the following four categories (Wirz, 2004):

• Type of information preferred: sensory (sights, sounds, and physical sensations), or intuitive (memories, ideas, and insights);

• How the information is received: visual (pictures, diagrams, graphs, and demonstrations), or verbal (sounds, written and spoken words, and formulas);

• How information is processed: actively (through engagement in physical activity or discussion), or reflectively (through introspection); and

• How students progress toward understanding: sequentially (in a logical progression or small incremental steps), or globally (in large jumps, absorbing material randomly). (pp. 1–2)

With the current interest on the student and teacher styles, a parallel increase in the utilization visual material, graphics, and media to connect with students has occurred.

The adaptation of the classroom to respond to the needs of the student has generated several student-centered activities and programs: active teaching (Nilson, 2003) and active learning continuum (Bornwell & Sutherland, 1996). Guiding, enriching, and supporting these classroom initiatives has been visual media literacy, whose purpose is to enhance three kinds of competencies: “the recognition of referents, the recognition of patterns, and the matching of meanings to referents” (Potter, 2004, p. 118). As Eddy and Bracken (2008) summarize, “Given the fact that classrooms often contain both traditionally aged and adult learners, the use of a variety of learning activities centered on movie clips provides support to a broad range of student learning orientations” (p. 127).

Movies as Visual Media

Having audio-visual material in the classroom does not just satisfy expectations, but it can communicate and reinforce information that is being imparted. Visual media adds to the effectiveness of student acquisition and retention of information (Ates, 2013). From his study, Ates concludes, “The findings show that the students' preferred the integration of films to the course compared to a traditional only lecture course. The class discussions after the screening of the movies also contributed to their retention and helped build critical thinking skills” (p. 315).

Movie clips in particular have been successfully utilized in variety of different courses at several different levels of college education. Behavioral science applications have occurred in psychology (Weidong, 2010), couples work (Shepard & Brew, 2005), family counseling (Wilson, 2013), counseling (Pierce & Wooloff, 2012), and group therapy (Yazici, Ulus, Selvitop, Yazici, & Aydin, 2014).

Much application of the cinema to the helping profession usually connects movies to specific disorders (e.g., As Good as It Gets (Ziskin & Brooks, 1997), What about Bob? (Ziskin & Oz, 1991) or Three Faces of Eve (Johnson, 1957). A class demonstration is described in “Madness and the Movies” (Datta, 2009), and several very interesting books with names like Reel Psychiatry (Robinson, 2003) and Movies and Mental Illness (Wedding & Niemiec, 2014) have found their way into the literature.

The approach in this article is different in that it utilizes scenes in movies to exemplify specific counseling concepts and techniques similar to the way Blasco and Moreto (2012) teach empathy to doctors-in-training. Parker (2009) sums up the approach well:

As has been shown in the literature and in the brief survey instrument administered for this paper, it appears that films can make materials, concepts and subjects easier for students to understand. Films often are useful to illustrate points that may be vague or confusing in course materials. It is obvious that students enjoy watching films in class rather than being subjected to long lectures over potentially dry material. (p. 133)

One Application

After considering the utilization of movie clips that others have used to enhance instruction, I began to connect movie clips to counseling theories and techniques, and the benefits have continued. The use of VML not only caused me to process and clarify my own pedagogy, but it also stimulated interest from students and colleagues.

The Beginnings of an Application of VML

My thoughts of using VML began while I was preparing for a presentation at a state counselor’s meeting in Florida in the summer of 2003. A creative inspiration serendipitously resulted in my showing movie clips to illustrate a couple of counseling theories. I was in the midst of struggling to find a counseling pedagogy and using Bloom’s taxonomy when I began to consider a handful of movies that illustrated some of the counseling techniques that I wanted to discuss. As an aside, I thought I might have them available during the presentation in case the audience lost energy. I included the movie clips, and the response was invigorating for the participants and for me. The journey had begun.

Data was gathered on the process. A day-long pre-conference workshop in 2005 at the American Counseling Association annual meeting reflected my early efforts to use research to establish the counseling pedagogy and utilize movie selections. Participant responses from the half-day workshop in Montreal were significant: “refreshing,” “interesting,” “time and cost effective,” “a formative experience.” The movies illustrated the material, but the material needed to be couched in structure, a meaningful pedagogy, which is discussed in another document (Mobley, Hall, & Crowell, 2008) and summarized here. This meaningful structure was as difficult and significant to master as becoming competent with the video technology to present the movie clips.

Additional feedback was received from student evaluations of college courses in which students provide confidential feedback of their perceptions of instructional delivery in the courses. When queried about the movies, students from 2009-2011 said: “good lesson enhancement,” “enjoyed the movies,” “the movies gave a visible connection to what we were studying,” “they were great examples of how to perform the different theories,” “more should be incorporated,” “loved them!!” “the movie clips were great in illustrating how the theories are used in daily living,” “very invigorating,” “provided insight into the theories,” “the movie clips were great!!” “it was well-thought out process, and it was good for showing examples of the different theories,” “kinda helps to see things in a different way,” “they correlate with the different theories—they helped me see what it [the individual theories] looks like,” “great concept—I’m still looking at the movies on my to do movie list,” the movie clips were visuals that provided examples of each therapy,” “I think this teaching methods is great—it always helps you to relate therapy technique to everyday events,” and “if you were not a deep thinker [you might think] the movies clips were for entertainment and the whole purpose flew over everyone’s head.” One person who rated the course as “great” and found several aspects of the course “very helpful” said that the movies were “not helpful at all.” Another said, “I often did not fully understand how they related to theory.” Thus, many related to the process, but some did not; this will be highlighted in a further discussion regarding “thirds.”

In Search of a Counseling Pedagogy

In the world of professional counseling, there has been a dearth of material on organizing and teaching individual and group counseling theories (Mobley et al., 2008). In order to keep the focus on the material that was presented and not just become enthralled with the technology (the movies), a reasonable process for organizing counseling information was required. Mobley & Gazda (2005) lacked the quantity of data that was desired but nonetheless gave significant support to a sequence of theory presentation.

Counseling theory and skills could be organized around the issue of existentialism and sequenced for training using Bloom’s taxonomy and illustrated with movie clips. Establishing a working definition of existentialism from movies like Bagger Vance (Nozik, Eberts, & Redford, 2001) in which Will Smith helped an emotionally wounded World War I veteran to find himself and Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy (Bell & Lloyd, 1981; BBC version) where a supercomputer (called Earth) was built to find the “meaning to life and everything” demonstrates the power of VML. These movies offered a clarity in defining existentialism that surpassed written definitions. From this existential “common denominator,” seven of the major counseling theories typically listed in current textbooks could be integrated into an internally consistent mega-theory and their concepts and skills taught from the most concrete and simple to the more abstract and complex (Mobley, 2005). This meaningful organization of the material provided a logical structure that could be utilized to sequence the material that was being offered.

The most basic concept and skill in counseling involved listening and was purposed into helping people with clarity by Carl Rogers. With his non-directive approach, he changed how counseling and therapy were done. Robin William’s portrayal of Patch Adams in the movie by that name (Farrell et al., 1998) extends the existential connection between helper and helpee to using that relationship to change the other person. Listening in this manner communicates an understanding of who clients are that allows them to change and grow. Similar listening and understanding occurs in Don Juan deMarco (Coppola, De Luca, Fuchs, & Leven, 1995) and Dead Man Walking (Robbins, Kilik, & Simmon, 1995). Listening may be simple when reduced to a formula (see Gordon, 1970), but it is certainly not easy. On the foundation of existentialism and the initial skill of listening, some form of counseling intervention is possible.

Based on the strength of the relationship of the counselor and counselee, at least four theories and strategies could be employed: 1) the counselor might define and seek to solve a problem as Krumboltz’s (Krumboltz & Thoresen, 1969) version of behaviorism (now referred to as learning theory) might do as illustrated by Apollo 13 (Grazer & Howard, 1995); 2) Glasser’s (2000) process for focusing on the client’s desired result, and as Tim Allen illustrated in Joe Somebody (Atchity et al., 2001), a plan could be implemented and evaluated to achieve what he wanted; 3) the irrational belief that was limiting the client could be disputed (Ellis, 2002) as was repeatedly illustrated in What About Bob? (Ziskin, & Oz, 1991); or 4) the courage and future orientation of Pay It Forward (McLaglen, et al., 2000) and Adlerian Individual Psychology (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1989) could be offered. These theories might form a second step, an action step built on the existential nature of humans and the counselor listening empathically, and suggest a third step.

If the client is unable to implement the plan of action, a third step of strategies could be employed. The most frequently occurring complication often involves trauma that prevents the client from maintaining a singular perspective (e.g., the abuse partner who wants to leave the abuse and loves the abuser). An expressive therapy to clarify the depth of the emotional wound or the conflict in order for the client to gain a singular focus and make progress would be necessary. Gestalt therapy (Perls, 1992) is existential and has techniques for achieving self-awareness. This work engages physical expression rather than just language. Robert Redford does gestalt work with a pre-adolescent and her horse in Horse Whisperer (Redford & Markey, 1998). It is powerful therapy that is successful. From this core of existentially-sensitive theories, more complex variations can be added (a fourth stage) and applied to more than one person at a time (i.e., group and family work and consultation; Mobley, 2005).

A collection of counseling theories and techniques are bundled into a process for training counselors—a process that can be communicated and illustrated by movie clips. The movies also become a shorthand for describing the processes and logic behind them.

Creating a System for Using Movies

While the concept of watching movies and selecting 2–7 minute selections to use with counseling concepts and strategies sounded exciting, the hours that have gone into selecting the movies, learning the technology to edit, and producing a product that was understandable and enjoyable was significant. Not only did the content of the profession have to be mastered and its pedagogy considered and refined, but visual technologies had to be acquired and competency developed.

Getting Started

Conferences and conferees also seem to be attracted by the technology and give extra merit to audiovisual enhanced presentations. Most of the described presentations have been half- or full-day preconference workshops and one two-day workshop, all of which have been relatively well attended. The idea of watching movie clips for half a day, a full day, or even two days apparently did not sound like a bad way to earn continuing education credits regardless of the topic. These data alone demonstrate the power of visual learning. A complete listing of the presentations is provided at the end of the article (see Appendix).

Having birthed this media-academic process in one situation, other questions arise: What would it take to make it into an article and how would the movies adapt from a face-to-face presentation into printed material? The material can and should be used in the classroom; and whatever is learned in the classroom can go into the next conference presentation.

Momentum

Once the first critical mass of information and technology has been established and learning-curve issues minimized, the process takes on a life of its own and becomes much more manageable. Other people, organizations, and journals become more approachable as successes occur.

Family members, students inside and outside the profession, friends, and colleagues have been stimulated to suggest movies and make their own connections to the material. Often participants will write down a list of movies that they connect to the material. Their contributions have been helpful, and Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) would indicate that participants are performing high-level application of the material that I was presenting. Additionally, while these activities are not the focus of this article’s VML application, they illustrate the appeal that occurs with this media.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

The use of other people’s creative material in an educational setting raises legal and ethical issues. The following two major and two minor considerations guide this discussion.

Presentations of actual movie scenes must pass two major tests in order to be legal and ethical: the situation in which the movies are offered must be educational and have a restricted audience. Parts of these movies have been shown in the classroom as part of counselor education courses—the purpose for showing the movies is educational and the class is limited to only those who are enrolled in a graduate counseling program. When presentations are made at state and national conferences, the two major tests for appropriateness are also passed. The environment in which the movie clips are shown is educational, and the audience is limited—the participants are registered at the conference. If movie clips and explanatory remarks were posted on a counselor training Web site, the purpose might be educational, but without some orderly process to restrict viewership, both requirements would not be met. My commentary, however, is my own production and can be posted without restriction.

Two lesser questions around profiting from copyrighted material should also be examined if the two major issues have been positively overcome: might someone other than the copyright holder make money from this presentation, or might this presentation somehow prevent the stakeholders from profiting from their work? If I were to receive considerable fees to present the movie clips without substantial material of my own work involved, even in an educational environment to a limited audience, I would probably not have met the ethical standard, if not the legal standard. In this situation money would be made from someone else’s creativity and efforts. Showing a movie as a fundraiser (without permission) to a group of students would not pass this test. To avoid this dilemma one needs only include considerable personal work along with the quoted material or receive a salary for teaching a course or modest honorarium for a presentation. Having personal efforts dominate the presentation (e.g., I am presenting counseling materials in a novel pedagogy) and one’s financial gain limited (e.g., waiver of conference fees for half- or full-day presentation) would be the highest road to take.

Another financial concern would involve preventing the sale of copyrighted material because the amount of presented information eliminated interest in the product. If considerable portions of several of the best cuts from a movie were played to illustrate a point that was being made in class, many members of the class might not ever buy or rent the DVD because they already experienced the best parts for free. Making copies of movies obviously limits the ability of the copyright holders from making money from their work. On the other hand, in the situation described in this article in which the amount of material played is limited, I have found that my students and participants in my workshops are often stimulated to rent or purchase movies as a result of experiencing the movie clips. More money is made by the creators and stakeholders as a result of my efforts, not less. I am hopefully staying well within the bounds of eithical and legal practice according to these four key points.

Lessons Learned

Several adaptations in the visual learning process have occurred over the years as presentations have been made and feedback received: the importance of setting-up what is being presented and manging the change process. While self-care is embedded in these concepts, other specific activites are encouraged.

Setting Up the Visual Material

Of the the three general uses for visual materials in the classroom—to illustrate the material being taught, to stimulate conversation around the material being taught, and to reinforce what has been presented (Thomas, Place, & Hillyard, 2008)—this article predominatly focuses on the first alternative, effectively utilizing the information to concretize abstract information, which has a significant down-side that needs to be addressed. The medium can become more important than the message. The narrative of the movie can eclipse the teaching point being made by showing the movie clip. Robin William’s character’s (Sean Maguire) compelling remarks on the park bench with genius Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon) in Good Will Hunting (Bender & Van Sant, 1997) can lead to meaningful discussions (the second way of utilizing movies) about grief, life and death, cancer, the use of profanity in counseling sessions, and/or many other good or irrelevant things and can overshadow the teaching points on assertiveness, and using I- messages when an immediacy issue that needs to be addressed by the counselor presents itself. The purpose for the media was to concretize what it looks like when the counselor honestly provides the client personalized feedback, but the class could be caught up in Sean’s passion and loss. The teaching point can be lost in the story. Maybe a couple of students noticed this possibility in their comments when they remarked that the movies were “confusing.”

To avoid time-wasters, even possibly productive off-task explorations, and to accomplish program goals and the standards that accreditation bodies require, the students are told what they are about to see (e.g., In this scene Sean will share his experience of interacting with Will Hunting and will conclude with a very existential recognition that he, like all people, could never understand “the depths of who [Will] is” but [he] would like to try.), then watch the selection after which what was seen is repeated (e.g., Did you notice how the focus was now on the counselor rather than empathy, which focuses on the client? The counselor’s feelings and concerns are articulated using I-messages.). From the perspective of gestalt psychology (Perls, 1992), the assertiveness issue that is being taught is brought to the forefront of their thinking rather than exploring all the possible issues that exist in the background. Not maintaining this structure has stimulated many discussions that did not accomplish the goals of the lesson; introducing, viewing, reviewing, and processing the movie selection has improved the communication of specific information that was designated in course planning and has allowed students to better receive the intended point(s).

More recently the movie clips have been utilized as a method of review prior to the midterm (the third alternative; Thomas et al., 2008). With the abstraction of the theory or technique in the back of students’ minds, the movie selections served to both concretize the material and to reinforce its meaning and purpose. The process of introducing the key issues from the movie clips and then focusing on those issues after viewing the selections remained the same, except now students should already be familiar with the counseling concepts.

Managing Change

Any time a new teaching technique is used, as opposed to the standard lecture format, three reactions can occur: 1) some students like it and respond positively to the presentation; 2) some do not like it and respond negatively; and 3) some seem uncertain and are waiting to see which opinion, one or two, dominates and side with them. These reaction might be described as “thirds” with each group being approximatel a third of the class. This grouping is a simplified people-oriented version of Lewin’s (1947) force-field analysis, a standard technique in group dynamics—a description of the change process. Regardless of which of the three groups participants fall into, efforts need to be made to have the instructor avoid personalizing the reactions to the change process. Repeating concepts such as the following can be useful: It’s not about me; they are going through their process of encountering new information and will need to work it out.

The pedagogy that is being used to apply the VML techniques to impart the concepts as well as the presentation of what students need to focus on can be flawless, but some students may still be uncomfortable with VML. Accepting discomfort with the newness of the process is essential. Some students seem to want what they have always had, while some do not want change as much as they say they do and balk when a new technique is used. Even the ones who enjoy change have to make adjustments and may have moments of struggle. Awkwardness, fear, and uncertainty will still occur, and allowing students to acclimate to the change is significant.

If the integrity of the lesson plan is maintained and adjusted to make only minor corrections in the pedagogy and explanations, all three groups will adapt to the process and benefit from it. Those who like change must be cultivated but not allowed to be the only “good ones.” Let them explain the benefits of what they are experiencing and affirm their courage and insights, but also find ways to affirm efforts in the right direction from the other two groups. While working with this third, do not make the other subgroup members to feel less important than the pro-change members. Ancient stories about Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Bufman et al., 1982) come to mind, where Joseph’s preferential treatment almost got him killed and did get him sold into slavery. Along with self-talk that the struggle is not about the teacher—it is about change—students need to be respected and their reactions explored. In counseling terms, faculty should be empathetic. Do not necessarily agree with them, listen to their concerns and summarize the concerns back to them.

The oppositional third, once acknowledged and understood, can often become the biggest supporter(s) of change in the end, but it does not happen quickly. Think: Dangerous Minds (Simpson, Bruckheimer, & Smith, 1995). Getting one of the key people to support the new process can be critical, but understanding the resistance they feel is even more important—as well as sub-vocally repeating that their opposition is not personal.

With an attitude of acceptance and support, the classroom becomes a safe place where the observers in the third group can begin to warm up to the idea of change. No one goes to another level without some deliberate effort and possibly pain. If a personality assessment were to be done on the group members, many of these more hesitant group members would probably prefer stability and safety and want to thoroughly understand what the change involves prior to taking any action. This type of person actually reads instruction manuals. As the momentum changes from the old way to the new way, they increment their way into the new norm—and after the change is made, they resist further adaptatons.

Self-Care

For faculty to build a balanced lifestyle with students, the profession, and other innovative teachers, and care about them deeply, often involves doing meaningful activities that are not work-related. These areas are the places where affirmations and long-term sustenance occur.

Students excel, and then they have to deal with a change in the group dynamics as a result of their progress; faculty excel, and then they have to deal with the changes that result of their progress. Others can feel somehow diminished by the achievements of the one. In healthier situations, the progress of one challenges the others to move up to a new level, but too often the others do not appreciate the change and work against it. Personal success away from school needs to occur to achieve a balanced perspective. Without a strong inner life, meaningful relationships, a spiritual program, and life away from work, external issues at school could become problematic for students or faculty, and the vissitudes of the creative process and the ebb-and-flow of popularity or trends could remove the joy from the incredible adventure at hand, using visual media and technology to teach.

Conclusion

My experiences in graduate classrooms and in a variety of local, regional, national, and international workshops support the notion that visual media stimulates the learning processes in ways that can be beneficial. Creating a classroom that is interactive and that connects with a variety of student learning styles can occur using movies but requires considerable effort. According to the feedback from various settings where VML was applied using movies, an enhanced understanding as well as enjoyment of counseling material occurred.

Prior to applying visual media in the classroom, the first challenge was to establish a pedagogy to direct my discipline’s information. This dialogue within the profession is ongoing but provides a necessary structure in which to present the counseling material. Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) and some preliminary results from multidimensional scaling of the perceptions of counselors and counselor educators of the dominant counseling theories (Mobley & Gazda, 2005) have guided the organization of this material for individual and group counseling and consulting. In this structure, less complex and more concrete ideas and techniques are mastered first, then more complex and more abstract ones are integrated with the initial ones. Throughout the process, the complexity increases: individual skills are necessary to work with groups and both are necessary to deal with families and organizations.

The next task was to achieve mastery of the technology that would be utilized to present visual material. In a perfect world skilled technicians could be available to cut, edit, and produce the final product. The world I live in has not been perfect, but the equipment and programs to edit movies are available and can be learned.

Having accomplished these first two foundational tasks, the imaginative phase began, where actual scenes from movies were connected to the counseling information and shaped into a presentation following the outline of the pedagogy. Only contemporary movies have been used in this application, but television shows, music, YouTube videos or other Internet material, or commercials could be selected to illustrate aspects of the counseling relationship. Movies were chosen because of some observations that had been made about how they seemed to include considerable psychological information (Robinson, 2003; Wedding & Niemiec, 2014), and the common cultural understanding that is shared through the phenomenon of movies. As selections from movies are connected to significant counseling material in an orderly manner, the milieus they could be used in expanded (e.g., beyond the classroom to workshops) and encouraged more applications (e.g., other counseling skills and courses).

Implementation of movies as part of the teaching process appeared to include substantial efforts to manage change in the learning environment— supporting those who like change, who resist change, and who change incrementally. The core of every aspect of this process includes self-care in order for a counselor educator to execute the earlier aspects of visual media learning and not lose focus when others resist the change from lectures to visual media.

In today’s classroom, the opportunity exists to harness the visual nature of Western culture and utilize the power of visual images in an orderly way to communicate aspects of counseling theory and technique. This application of visual media learning using movie clips seems to have successfully stimulated the development of counseling students and other counseling professionals.

Appendix

Chronology of Movie-Related Professional Presentations

June 17, 2003. Mobley, J. An efficient way to be effective. Summer Institute for School and Mental Health Counselors in Orlando, Florida.

June 27, 2004. Mobley, J. Let’s go to the movies. (originally titled Letting movies concretize counseling concepts and strategies). American School Counselors Association 2004 annual meeting in Reno, Nevada.

November 9, 2004. Mobley, J. Let’s go to the movies and learn how to counsel. Georgia School Counselors Association 2004 annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

April 7, 2005. Mobley, J. Utilizing movies to teach counseling theories and techniques. American Counseling Association 2005 annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

April 27, 2006. Mobley, J. Utilizing movies to learn multi-cultural family counseling. American Counseling Association and Canadian Counselling Association, annual meeting in Montreal, Quebec.

February 24 & 25, 2007. Mobley, J. Let’s go to the movies and learn how to do group and family work: Applications for mental health and drug abuse counselors. European Branch-American Counseling Association (eb-aca) in Speyer, Germany.

February 23, 2008. Mobley, J. Let’s go to the movies and get better at doing family groups. Association for Specialists in Group Work in St. Petersburg, FL.

June 28, 2008. Mobley, J. Using movies to improve faculty and family consultation. American School Counselor Association (ASCA) in Atlanta, GA.