Shrinking Season 3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I very much want to discuss what happened at the end of this week's episode regarding Maya, but don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't yet watched (which I'm guessing might be a lot of people following this thread, since no one else has posted this week). So I'm holding off but please watch because I have thoughts to share and want to hear what others think!

Yes will be interesting to see how Gabby handles this. Likely changing future career plans she was just talking about.

PP here. I have been ranting about the Maya storyline for a couple weeks to my DH because this is something about Shrinking that really annoys me. Jimmy's approach to therapy is really dangerous and disturbing, Gabby *knows* that and has been criticizing him about it for the entire show, and then she implements it in the worst possible way? I was getting really frustrated with the whole storyline but now I feel like, for once, the show is really going to address WHY it's so dangerous for therapists to become personally involved with their clients. Yet it seems bizarre to me that it's happening to Gabby who has always been the most professional of the three therapists and seemed to already understand this. Whereas Jimmy has been doing it since the start with no real consequences (for him, there have been negative consequences for his patients) and even Harrison Ford's character has done things I find questionable though nothing as bad as what Jimmy does or what Gabby did with Maya.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't love it, but I'll stick with it. I thought this episode was pretty good for Jason Segel. His singing was funnier than Michael Urie's, and Harrison Ford's face in the back seat was hilarious.

I really don't like Sean's girlfriend.

The singing was great! It reminded me of a carpool karaoke or some show where the people were singing One Day More (I think? also from Les Miz) and of course they were all theatre kids and knew everything and kind of ad hoc picked the parts. Anyone know WTF I'm remembering?!

One Day More is featured in one of the famous SNL sketches from when John Mulaney hosted - maybe Lobster in the Diner?

Found it! But I freaking love every one of John Mulaneys NYC musicals on SNL too!

It's dead on to this:

https://youtu.be/EhXsJjVdj1E?si=UwAYPh0BfS4o7w2l

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I very much want to discuss what happened at the end of this week's episode regarding Maya, but don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't yet watched (which I'm guessing might be a lot of people following this thread, since no one else has posted this week). So I'm holding off but please watch because I have thoughts to share and want to hear what others think!

Yes will be interesting to see how Gabby handles this. Likely changing future career plans she was just talking about.

PP here. I have been ranting about the Maya storyline for a couple weeks to my DH because this is something about Shrinking that really annoys me. Jimmy's approach to therapy is really dangerous and disturbing, Gabby *knows* that and has been criticizing him about it for the entire show, and then she implements it in the worst possible way? I was getting really frustrated with the whole storyline but now I feel like, for once, the show is really going to address WHY it's so dangerous for therapists to become personally involved with their clients. Yet it seems bizarre to me that it's happening to Gabby who has always been the most professional of the three therapists and seemed to already understand this. Whereas Jimmy has been doing it since the start with no real consequences (for him, there have been negative consequences for his patients) and even Harrison Ford's character has done things I find questionable though nothing as bad as what Jimmy does or what Gabby did with Maya.

Gabby massively brushed off Maya's comment about mixing Xanax and alcohol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I very much want to discuss what happened at the end of this week's episode regarding Maya, but don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't yet watched (which I'm guessing might be a lot of people following this thread, since no one else has posted this week). So I'm holding off but please watch because I have thoughts to share and want to hear what others think!

Yes will be interesting to see how Gabby handles this. Likely changing future career plans she was just talking about.

PP here. I have been ranting about the Maya storyline for a couple weeks to my DH because this is something about Shrinking that really annoys me. Jimmy's approach to therapy is really dangerous and disturbing, Gabby *knows* that and has been criticizing him about it for the entire show, and then she implements it in the worst possible way? I was getting really frustrated with the whole storyline but now I feel like, for once, the show is really going to address WHY it's so dangerous for therapists to become personally involved with their clients. Yet it seems bizarre to me that it's happening to Gabby who has always been the most professional of the three therapists and seemed to already understand this. Whereas Jimmy has been doing it since the start with no real consequences (for him, there have been negative consequences for his patients) and even Harrison Ford's character has done things I find questionable though nothing as bad as what Jimmy does or what Gabby did with Maya.

Gabby massively brushed off Maya's comment about mixing Xanax and alcohol.

Gabby also just recreated the precise situation in Maya's life that was leading to her feelings of isolation. Maya had been feeling abandoned by her friends, who were not showing up for her in her life when she felt she needed them. Then Gabby decided to violate traditional boundaries to become Maya's friend. Then Maya was in a low moment and feeling in need of a friend, called Gabby, and Gabby brushed her off and imposed the traditional therapist-patient boundaries ("we can talk about this at our next session"). It was an unintentional bait and switch that would feel especially devastating to someone in a state of depression, as Maya clearly is.

The whole thing is TERRIBLE therapeutic practice. Gabby was making a big deal about how Maya wouldn't "let [her] in." Rather than recognizing that Maya's reluctance to be open and honest with Gabby is a reflection of trust issues likely related to past experiences (that they might eventually address in therapy), Gabby fixated on finding a way to force Maya to open up more quickly. And then rather than employing any actual cognitive behavioral techniques to help Gabby with the ways that her depression was distorting her perception, Gabby just introduced Maya to *her* friends and congratulated herself for fixing Gabby's loneliness without addressing any of the underlying reasons for it.

It's malpractice. And it's especially annoying because Gabby has been the most vocal opponent to Jimmy's "style" of therapy previously, which was the right attitude, but for some reason she decided to do a 180 on it.

This show drives me nuts sometimes.

[Anonymous]

I just watched it tonight and it just hurt. I was so annoyed with Gabby’s phrasing “can it wait until our next session” when Maya was clearly in a bad place reaching out to her. Gabby set her up to fail. Ooof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just watched it tonight and it just hurt. I was so annoyed with Gabby’s phrasing “can it wait until our next session” when Maya was clearly in a bad place reaching out to her. Gabby set her up to fail. Ooof.

Not happy to be right, but I totally called this week's episode after that incident.

[Anonymous]

This week’s episode really annoyed me. Will Gabby eventually come clean that she messed up with Maya (and not just because she didn’t get Maya to open up about her abandonment issues)??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This week’s episode really annoyed me. Will Gabby eventually come clean that she messed up with Maya (and not just because she didn’t get Maya to open up about her abandonment issues)??

I'm the PP who posted the long rant about this upthread. This week's episode just made me more mad. Gabby is acting like she couldn't possibly have known that Gabby had abandonment issues but it was incredibly obvious. Literally Gabby's whole reason for struggling was feeling abandoned by her friends who moved away. That's like a flashing red light saying "childhood wound". Which Gabby chose to treat by befriending her patient and then abandoning her in her moment of need.

I guess one of the most realistic things about this show is that it illustrates how many therapists are really bad at their jobs. Because this is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

You guys do know it's a comedy, and not meant to be taken seriously, right? I never thought the premise to be "real" and have laughed out load more than once at every episode

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys do know it's a comedy, and not meant to be taken seriously, right? I never thought the premise to be "real" and have laughed out load more than once at every episode

Yes but sometimes the show gets so over the top you lose the ability to suspend disbelief. The show is in theory about a group of psychologists and so when it gets way out of whack, viewers are going to notice.

I like the show, Harrison Ford's performance is great and Ted McGinley is low key hilarious. But it goes a bit too off the rails sometimes (usually with Jimmy, sometimes with Gabby).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys do know it's a comedy, and not meant to be taken seriously, right? I never thought the premise to be "real" and have laughed out load more than once at every episode

I love the show and laugh out loud several times while watching it. Harrison Ford is great in it. But clearly some story lines, like Maya’s, aren’t meant to be funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys do know it's a comedy, and not meant to be taken seriously, right? I never thought the premise to be "real" and have laughed out load more than once at every episode

Yes but when they are talking about therapy, depression, and suicide, and getting basics very wrong, it hard to laugh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I very much want to discuss what happened at the end of this week's episode regarding Maya, but don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't yet watched (which I'm guessing might be a lot of people following this thread, since no one else has posted this week). So I'm holding off but please watch because I have thoughts to share and want to hear what others think!

Yes will be interesting to see how Gabby handles this. Likely changing future career plans she was just talking about.

PP here. I have been ranting about the Maya storyline for a couple weeks to my DH because this is something about Shrinking that really annoys me. Jimmy's approach to therapy is really dangerous and disturbing, Gabby *knows* that and has been criticizing him about it for the entire show, and then she implements it in the worst possible way? I was getting really frustrated with the whole storyline but now I feel like, for once, the show is really going to address WHY it's so dangerous for therapists to become personally involved with their clients. Yet it seems bizarre to me that it's happening to Gabby who has always been the most professional of the three therapists and seemed to already understand this. Whereas Jimmy has been doing it since the start with no real consequences (for him, there have been negative consequences for his patients) and even Harrison Ford's character has done things I find questionable though nothing as bad as what Jimmy does or what Gabby did with Maya.

Gabby massively brushed off Maya's comment about mixing Xanax and alcohol.

Gabby also just recreated the precise situation in Maya's life that was leading to her feelings of isolation. Maya had been feeling abandoned by her friends, who were not showing up for her in her life when she felt she needed them. Then Gabby decided to violate traditional boundaries to become Maya's friend. Then Maya was in a low moment and feeling in need of a friend, called Gabby, and Gabby brushed her off and imposed the traditional therapist-patient boundaries ("we can talk about this at our next session"). It was an unintentional bait and switch that would feel especially devastating to someone in a state of depression, as Maya clearly is.

The whole thing is TERRIBLE therapeutic practice. Gabby was making a big deal about how Maya wouldn't "let [her] in." Rather than recognizing that Maya's reluctance to be open and honest with Gabby is a reflection of trust issues likely related to past experiences (that they might eventually address in therapy), Gabby fixated on finding a way to force Maya to open up more quickly. And then rather than employing any actual cognitive behavioral techniques to help Gabby with the ways that her depression was distorting her perception, Gabby just introduced Maya to *her* friends and congratulated herself for fixing Gabby's loneliness without addressing any of the underlying reasons for it.

It's malpractice. And it's especially annoying because Gabby has been the most vocal opponent to Jimmy's "style" of therapy previously, which was the right attitude, but for some reason she decided to do a 180 on it.

This show drives me nuts sometimes.

This show makes a strong case for not going to a therapist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I very much want to discuss what happened at the end of this week's episode regarding Maya, but don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't yet watched (which I'm guessing might be a lot of people following this thread, since no one else has posted this week). So I'm holding off but please watch because I have thoughts to share and want to hear what others think!

Yes will be interesting to see how Gabby handles this. Likely changing future career plans she was just talking about.

PP here. I have been ranting about the Maya storyline for a couple weeks to my DH because this is something about Shrinking that really annoys me. Jimmy's approach to therapy is really dangerous and disturbing, Gabby *knows* that and has been criticizing him about it for the entire show, and then she implements it in the worst possible way? I was getting really frustrated with the whole storyline but now I feel like, for once, the show is really going to address WHY it's so dangerous for therapists to become personally involved with their clients. Yet it seems bizarre to me that it's happening to Gabby who has always been the most professional of the three therapists and seemed to already understand this. Whereas Jimmy has been doing it since the start with no real consequences (for him, there have been negative consequences for his patients) and even Harrison Ford's character has done things I find questionable though nothing as bad as what Jimmy does or what Gabby did with Maya.

Gabby massively brushed off Maya's comment about mixing Xanax and alcohol.

Gabby also just recreated the precise situation in Maya's life that was leading to her feelings of isolation. Maya had been feeling abandoned by her friends, who were not showing up for her in her life when she felt she needed them. Then Gabby decided to violate traditional boundaries to become Maya's friend. Then Maya was in a low moment and feeling in need of a friend, called Gabby, and Gabby brushed her off and imposed the traditional therapist-patient boundaries ("we can talk about this at our next session"). It was an unintentional bait and switch that would feel especially devastating to someone in a state of depression, as Maya clearly is.

The whole thing is TERRIBLE therapeutic practice. Gabby was making a big deal about how Maya wouldn't "let [her] in." Rather than recognizing that Maya's reluctance to be open and honest with Gabby is a reflection of trust issues likely related to past experiences (that they might eventually address in therapy), Gabby fixated on finding a way to force Maya to open up more quickly. And then rather than employing any actual cognitive behavioral techniques to help Gabby with the ways that her depression was distorting her perception, Gabby just introduced Maya to *her* friends and congratulated herself for fixing Gabby's loneliness without addressing any of the underlying reasons for it.

It's malpractice. And it's especially annoying because Gabby has been the most vocal opponent to Jimmy's "style" of therapy previously, which was the right attitude, but for some reason she decided to do a 180 on it.

This show drives me nuts sometimes.

This show makes a strong case for not going to a therapist.

At least it's showing, accurately, how bad a lot of therapists are -- absorbed in their own life dramas, failing to actually listen to patients, getting emotionally involved with patients at the expense of objective treatment, etc.

I have C-PTSD from childhood abuse and have been in therapy off and on for 25 years. The biggest misconception about therapy is that it's relatively easy to find a decent therapist when you need one. It's not. Most therapists are middling to bad. You can still get something out of a middling therapist, but bad ones can be damaging. I've learned to cut bait when I see red flags.

Paul is the only therapist on shrinking I would not have fired by now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I very much want to discuss what happened at the end of this week's episode regarding Maya, but don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't yet watched (which I'm guessing might be a lot of people following this thread, since no one else has posted this week). So I'm holding off but please watch because I have thoughts to share and want to hear what others think!

Yes will be interesting to see how Gabby handles this. Likely changing future career plans she was just talking about.

PP here. I have been ranting about the Maya storyline for a couple weeks to my DH because this is something about Shrinking that really annoys me. Jimmy's approach to therapy is really dangerous and disturbing, Gabby *knows* that and has been criticizing him about it for the entire show, and then she implements it in the worst possible way? I was getting really frustrated with the whole storyline but now I feel like, for once, the show is really going to address WHY it's so dangerous for therapists to become personally involved with their clients. Yet it seems bizarre to me that it's happening to Gabby who has always been the most professional of the three therapists and seemed to already understand this. Whereas Jimmy has been doing it since the start with no real consequences (for him, there have been negative consequences for his patients) and even Harrison Ford's character has done things I find questionable though nothing as bad as what Jimmy does or what Gabby did with Maya.

Gabby massively brushed off Maya's comment about mixing Xanax and alcohol.

Gabby also just recreated the precise situation in Maya's life that was leading to her feelings of isolation. Maya had been feeling abandoned by her friends, who were not showing up for her in her life when she felt she needed them. Then Gabby decided to violate traditional boundaries to become Maya's friend. Then Maya was in a low moment and feeling in need of a friend, called Gabby, and Gabby brushed her off and imposed the traditional therapist-patient boundaries ("we can talk about this at our next session"). It was an unintentional bait and switch that would feel especially devastating to someone in a state of depression, as Maya clearly is.

The whole thing is TERRIBLE therapeutic practice. Gabby was making a big deal about how Maya wouldn't "let [her] in." Rather than recognizing that Maya's reluctance to be open and honest with Gabby is a reflection of trust issues likely related to past experiences (that they might eventually address in therapy), Gabby fixated on finding a way to force Maya to open up more quickly. And then rather than employing any actual cognitive behavioral techniques to help Gabby with the ways that her depression was distorting her perception, Gabby just introduced Maya to *her* friends and congratulated herself for fixing Gabby's loneliness without addressing any of the underlying reasons for it.

It's malpractice. And it's especially annoying because Gabby has been the most vocal opponent to Jimmy's "style" of therapy previously, which was the right attitude, but for some reason she decided to do a 180 on it.

This show drives me nuts sometimes.

This show makes a strong case for not going to a therapist.

At least it's showing, accurately, how bad a lot of therapists are -- absorbed in their own life dramas, failing to actually listen to patients, getting emotionally involved with patients at the expense of objective treatment, etc.

I have C-PTSD from childhood abuse and have been in therapy off and on for 25 years. The biggest misconception about therapy is that it's relatively easy to find a decent therapist when you need one. It's not. Most therapists are middling to bad. You can still get something out of a middling therapist, but bad ones can be damaging. I've learned to cut bait when I see red flags.

Paul is the only therapist on shrinking I would not have fired by now.

Agreed!