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Welcome back to BeREAL! This week, Diana and Ednesha are finishing their conversation about In Treatment on HBO by discussing parent/teen/therapists relationships, therapy for therapists, and loneliness during quarantine.
The two begin the episode by outlining the remaining characters to be discussed. Laila is a high school student struggling with her sexuality. Rita is Brooke’s AA sponsor for her alcoholism. Adam is Brooke’s current partner.
When discussing Laila and her struggles as a teen in high school, Ednesha brings up the dynamic of teens in therapy and their parents. Unless the minor is in immediate danger, the patient can expect therapist confidentiality for what is said during their sessions. However, the therapists talk about the option teens have, which is letting their parent sit in on a session if the teen feels comfortable and wants to discuss a specific topic with a therapist present.
The conversation about Leila also leads to a discussion about how upbringing affects one’s view of themself. Laila has been brought up being told she is “spoiled” and believing she has not been affected by the traumas that other Black Americans speak on due to her class status. However, Diana and Ednesha dig into the circumstances surrounding her family to find that racism has played a part in her upbringing regardless of what Laila believes.
After a short break, Diana and Ednesha return to discuss how the show portrays the life of Brooke outside of sessions. Ednesha says that one benefit of social media is that patients can look up their clinician and see that they are real people who exist outside of the office as well. This is especially beneficial during the pandemic because therapy/the relationship with a therapist may be the most constant and consistent thing in the patient’s life due to the chaos of COVID.
Lastly, they tackle the conversation of Brooke’s alcoholism. Because she does not seek therapeutic help for her drinking problems, Brooke sometimes falls out of her role as a clinician and lashes out in sessions with her patients. This helps debunk the myth that therapists should be able to treat themselves, and that they have all their answers for their own problems, by showcasing the issues that arise when therapists are not in therapy themselves.
Thank you for tuning into BeREAL this week. Be on the lookout for an all new episode next Tuesday. In the meantime, make sure you catch last week’s episode on Minority Mental Health Month.
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