One of the most impressive aspects of this beautifully photographed, riveting documentary is the way the filmmakers catch the generosity of the prisoners who give their all to help the non prisoners and fellow inmates. The organizers of The Work and the participants deserve a lot of credit. I don't know of a single man, including my male patients who couldn't benefit from this four day event. Hopefully, women who watch this will understand some of the internal pain that most men carry.

Directed by Jairus McLeary and Gerthin Aldous, The Work takes us inside California's maximum security Folsom prison to observe a four day extremely intense group therapy session consisting of both inmates and civilians brought in to participate from the ordinary (non-criminal) world.

The documentary begins with these ordinary Joes on the bus driving to the facility and expressing their anxiety about going inside a maximum security prison and having to interact with hardened criminals. Once they enter the room where the therapy sessions take place, they're each quickly paired off with an inmate partner whom they're encouraged to get to know before the actual therapy begins.

The therapy itself often involves each man sharing accounts of a difficult relationship or traumatic event that leads to the blocking off of emotional feelings. In some cases the inmates become agitated and are held down by members of the group until they break down in tears. Other times, the mere recounting of a traumatic event leads to an emotional response-usually crying or in some cases, deeper sobbing.

In one telling moment, one of the non-inmate participants honestly tells one of the inmates that he is unable to connect with his tale of being abandoned by a rejecting father. The inmate interprets this confession of emotional detachment as a belittlement of his particular situation and lashes out at the man calling him a "bitch" and almost ready to physically attack him.

Many of these cathartic moments are difficult to watch as the average viewer may not be used to outpourings of such raw emotion. At the conclusion of The Work, we're informed that every inmate who went through the therapy sessions and was later released from prison, has not returned. That certainly is impressive!

Nonetheless, one wonders if the therapy over such a short time period is effective in resolving past traumatic events. One clue that leads to skepticism is the nature of the emoting depicted. In every case, the crying (or sobbing) often seems blocked-as if the men are unable to break through into a deeper level of emotional release. This is understandable given taboos in our society for men to express their feelings.

Instead of simply employing a confessional model to evoke emotions, there are other techniques involving physical exercises that can facilitate even deeper release from what the famed psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich referred to as "body armoring." An updated version of Reichian therapy, Bioenergetics, developed by Dr. Alexander Lowen, certainly could be put to good use in therapeutic settings such as this.

The bottom line is any technique to uncover repressed emotions, including group therapy sessions with hardened criminals, should be viewed as something positive. Given reports of zero recidivism, this is a program that apparently "works."