Reel vs. real therapy: part iv

We are back with our series where we explore reel vs real therapy. Today we are out to examine the portrayal of therapy in a teen-favourite: “Wednesday”

Wednesday Addams, in this adaptation, is around 16 years old. She is portrayed to be not very social, honest, creative and vengeful. After an incident at her old school, her parents sent her to Nevermore — a boarding school that was attended by her parents. There she is taken to her court-mandated therapy sessions by her school principal.

To say that her first therapy session did not go well is an understatement. The therapy space is set up well. It's well-lit and well-decorated and does invoke a sense of calmness. Her therapist, Dr. Valerie Kinbott, starts the session by saying that she has read the notes from her previous counsellor. This is not the best way to start a session because the client may feel that you may already have a preconceived notion about them. There are many other ways in which the therapist could have opened her session— she could have asked Wednesday about how she was doing, how she feels coming to therapy, get to know her and general details about her life. Useful therapy has the therapist be curious and clarify their assumptions about the person instead of being judgemental about them.

Dr. Valerie gestures to her to take a seat. Generally, in therapy sessions, we ask the clients to choose their seats. Giving them the choice, the client may choose a seat that they are most comfortable with. This can be a simple moment of bonding between the therapist and the client. Especially with teen clients, it might act as a small act of dismantling the power difference.

Wednesday had driven her previous therapist to a nervous breakdown, a fact that she casually mentions. Dr. Valerie asks her how she feels about that. Asking about feelings is the right way to go in therapy for sure. However, the pace at which the therapists explore feelings is guided by the readiness of the client. In this particular scenario, Wednesday is defensive and is not ready yet. For this context, the therapist can simply try to get to know Wednesday better, instead of diving into feelings, unless the client herself wants to talk about it.

When Wednesday says that she considered her previous therapist as an adversary, the therapist is surprised and says that she hopes that they can build a relationship based on mutual trust and respect and also highlights that this is a safe space. This can also be an entry point for her to ask Wednesday about her experience with her previous therapist and what made her feel that she was her adversary.

Dr. Valerie explains that therapy is a space of exploration and they can discuss anything such as her views on life and philosophies. Wednesday says that for her life is something to be endured and her philosophy is to get killed or to kill. The undertones of this scene are that Wednesday is probably lonely or does not feel like she fits in. It would have been useful if the therapist had offered active listening, empathy and held her feelings as being valid. Instead, she starts confronting Wednesday. While confrontations, challenging beliefs and thought processes are a part of the therapy process, an ethical and responsible therapist does it with care and compassion and awareness. When Wednesday defends her actions, the therapist begins attacking her. She is judgemental and accuses Wednesday of not showing any remorse for her actions. This is bad therapy 101. While the therapist highlights that it is a safe space, her actions say otherwise. It looks like the therapist’s goal is to “fix” Wednesday, as she seems to have already made a judgement that she isn’t a good child. In real therapy, when we work with kids who have had trouble at school or are oppositional, we empathise with the child, respect them and their resources unconditionally. We try to look at their actions from their perspective and try to understand their story and underlying emotions. We also bring in the family members, school and other systems if the child agrees and find ways to facilitate what the child finds empowering. We don’t bring up the incident if the client doesn't want to talk about it but we do let them know that we are ready to hold space for them, if needed.

When Wednesday says that she has answered all her questions and stands up to walk off, the therapist tells her that they are not done yet. Therapists encourage clients to take breaks in between therapy if they want to. They can also stand or walk around. It also looks like she almost ordered Wednesday. It is the therapist's responsibility to make the client feel safe and comfortable. Here the power imbalance is clear. If this ever happens to your therapy, it is to have a conversation with your therapist and drop them if you find they do not take accountability and show willingness to work through it with you. After Wednesday sits, the therapist again starts telling her what therapy is. It looks like she wants to “sell” therapy to Wednesday. Instead of defending therapy, in real life, the therapists would acknowledge and engage with the doubts of the client. She also mentions confidentiality — whatever the client shares with the therapist will stay between both of them. Generally, confidentiality and other ethical guidelines are discussed at the beginning of the first session itself. An additional thing that we discuss is the exceptions to this rule i.e., therapists break confidentiality when the client's safety is at risk.

The therapist asks her if she wants to be an author by bringing up three novels that she has written and asking about the main character. The novel was given to the therapist by her previous counsellor. Her tone towards Wednesday is sarcastic at this point. This can come across as a breach of privacy in this particular context, as the therapist’s expressions and tone indicate that she is coming from a place of judgement and not curiosity. Dr. Valerie says that she was intrigued by the relationship between the protagonist and her mother in the novel and highlights that in therapy sometimes we need to journey to uncomfortable places. This is true but Wednesday is not ready to talk about anything yet. Moreover, there was no attempt made by the therapist to build a relationship or connection with the client.

The scene ends with Wednesday excusing herself to the powder room, climbing out of the window and running away.

Dr Valerie Kinbott and Wednesday meet again randomly at a clothing store. She approaches Wednesday and asks her if she will go to the school dance this weekend. If therapists see their clients outside the session, they don’t initiate a conversation, to protect their privacy. It is an ethical guideline that therapists follow and also make their clients aware of the same at the start of the therapy process. If the client approaches, then they do talk to them and also explore this experience in the next session. Here, Dr. Valerie initiating the conversation is not real-life-therapy-like. Along with this, asking a question about dance can be invasive in this scenario, considering the relationship that they share is not safe yet. The therapist can discuss this meeting in therapy next time they meet. She can ask Wednesday questions such as how did she feel meeting the therapist outside? How did she feel when she asked her about the dance? Etc. She ends the conversation by saying that she wants to hear all about the dance in their next session. This is an appropriate response that suits what therapists might do in a scenario where a client meets with them and initiates an interaction outside of the session space in real life.

Therapy is a nurturing and collaborative space where the therapist and the client work towards the goals that are chosen by and are meaningful to the client. The therapist in this show is judgemental, lacks empathy and already has an agenda in her mind. To conclude, the show did really well in representing a bad therapist and showing a bad therapy session!