Films & Docs / Recorded sessions
Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (the Gloria films)
A teaching film released in 1965, showing three therapists interviewing the same participant for a filmed demonstration.
Viewing note
These are filmed demonstrations with a real participant, not dramatisations, but they are not representative of therapy as a whole. Made for teaching in the United States in the 1960s, they show three practitioners in single interviews rather than a course of therapy or usual practice today.
Details
Title: Three Approaches to Psychotherapy
Year: 1965
Director: Everett L. Shostrom (producer and director)
Format: recorded session
Country: United States
Running time: Part 1 (Carl Rogers): 48 minutes
What the work shows
The series, produced by Everett Shostrom and released in 1965, shows one client, known as Gloria, in separate sessions with three therapists. Carl Rogers represents person-centred therapy, Fritz Perls represents Gestalt therapy and Albert Ellis represents rational emotive therapy. In the Rogers session, Martin describes Gloria discussing her wish to be honest with her daughter while adjusting to life after divorce.
The film is often used in teaching to compare styles. A catalogue record describes the Rogers session as showing a response of understanding, without judgement or directive guidance.
How closely it reflects practice
Each interview is a single meeting between one therapist and the participant, so it cannot show the course of a therapy or establish the results of an approach. Differences between the interviews may reflect the practitioners and the setting as well as their approaches; they are not evidence that one approach is better than another.
Consent and age of the recording
Historian Jack Martin reports that producer Everett Shostrom later described a release permitting broad use of the films. Martin also recounts Gloria’s daughter Pamela Burry’s account of seeing her mother on television and of a cinema advertisement. These are accounts reported by Martin; the original agreement and Burry’s book were not examined for this entry, so the agreement’s exact terms are not established here.
Writing about confidentiality and consent, Kerry Thomas-Anttila asks how far Gloria could have anticipated future uses of the films and whether her therapeutic relationship with Shostrom affected her freedom to consent. These are ethical questions raised by the author, not findings about the terms of the unseen agreement.
Limits of this entry
Martin dates filming to 1964 and release to 1965. The catalogue running time is for the Rogers film only. The films have not been viewed for this draft, so descriptions rely on the cited catalogue and published accounts.
Sources and inspection notes
Supports: Year, country, producer and director, running time of Part 1 and a description of the Rogers session.
Supports: Historical account of the three sessions, filming in 1964 and release in 1965; also reports Shostrom’s and Burry’s later accounts of distribution. The original release and Burry’s book were not examined for this entry.
Supports: The author’s discussion of consent, the therapist–client relationship, and future use of the Gloria films; not the original agreement.