Dan Wilbur
Therapy should be free and accessible to all. Frankly, you all need it. Not me, though. That’s because I’ve been going once a week for years. I’m already in it. Take that, trolls who tell me I need therapy! I’m already in it. What now? Anyway, therapy is good and the way it’s depicted in movies and TV is not very accurate.
Firstly, TV only has a short amount of time to reveal character traits and plot points. Therefore, we get tears and big breakthroughs that feel authentic and honest. But in reality, you talk about how work and dating have gone in the past week. A big sticking point for me is that a therapist is not supposed to pass judgment or even necessarily give advice if they’re good at their job. So “want my advice?” is something a parent or friend can say, but if a therapist says it in a movie, they’re a therapist.
Therapy, if you’ve never been, is basically where you recite one of those long AITA Reddit posts from your own personal life, and at the end, the lady you paid to listen to it shouts “not the a**hole!” and then you go home. That’s it. The media portrays it differently.
Here’s what people have heard about therapy in movies and TV versus what they experienced in real life:
1. That’s how it’s done!
2. In reality, you’ll go after school if I can find someone to drive you there.
3. Families are toxic. QED.
4. This changes how I feel about Good Will Hunting.
5. I would pay to just nap at my therapist’s office.
6. I don’t even like when my friends do this to me.
7. I count how many laughs I get in therapy.
8. My therapist speaks french and goes to the opera all the time, but he also has listened to Stern for 20 years, so it evens out.
9. This advice is actually kosher.
10. Memes hurt people.
11. I want this therapist!
12. Laser accuracy.
13. My bumper sticker.
14. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.
