Mindworks Coaching Montreal

As a therapist and life coach, I was excited to get a glimpse of the new HBO series, In Treatment. I thought, “Hey, this is great! Maybe I will learn something useful and get better at what I do,” since I am always on the lookout for the newest secrets to change. But I was in for a disappointment. I don’t know what kind of “therapy” they claim to be doing in the show but I think the patients are better off without it.

There was a lot of talking going on and the therapist’s questions didn’t seem to be leading anywhere useful. In fact, at some points, the therapist (played by Gabriel Byrne) didn’t know what exactly to do (which is called incompetence by the way) and this couple who has come in to see him fight during the session and the woman leaves. Was that the aim? I suppose if the therapist had figured the guy was better off without this woman, mission accomplished!

But what can we expect of Hollywood? Disseminating untruths seems to be the sole purpose of Hollywood. Obviously someone wasn’t in the loop when it comes to the status quo on therapy today. But come to think of it, there are probably a lot of therapists who work like this and I think it’s too bad their clients don’t know better.

There are now extremely powerful and effective models of couple and family therapy (such as Systemic Therapy for instance) in which the therapist helps clients communicate more effectively, so they can get their message across (yelling doesn’t work, I’ve tried) and so they can revive their feelings of connection and intimacy. That’s the point of couples therapy, isn’t it? Because really, if you want someone to ask random questions while you yell at your spouse, you don’t need to pay a therapist $140 an hour.