Episode 3, Laila, and Episode 4, Brooke and Rita, aired four days ago. Usually I like to post about each episode within a day of its airing but this time I have just had a hard time finding what stood out for me. So read this with my ambivalence in mind.
Laila —
Laila is brought to her first session by her grandmother who seems to think that 2 or 3 sessions should be enough. Laila, she says, is “choosing to be gay” and grandmother wants her prepared for what she faces in college.
I confess it has been years since I worked with a teenager — once my own kids were teens, I just didn’t want to deal with more teen issues. And I confess that Laila reminds me why. She is defensive, provocative, sarcastic, often hostile. Brooke manages all of this pretty well, even though none of her efforts gets Laila to speak of herself other than with labels. She gets Laila to move out of the usual physical set up of sitting opposite each other and move to a table where they eat Easter candy. But Laila stays guarded.
We don’t learn a whole lot about Laila in this episode. We know she says she is gay. She claims to be a sex addict. She’s the only child of what she describes as a workaholic. Her grandmother has taken the place of her mother — but what happened to her?
Brooke’s effort to reach Laila and her recognition that she has to earn her trust are spot on but it remains to be seen if Laila will really engage in therapy. It is the relationship between therapist and patient which is the vehicle for the work of therapy and Laila is pretty armored.
Brooke and Rita
Rita is Brooke’s friend who shows up after having been away for a while. We learn that Brooke’s still mourning her recently deceased father, and her toxic ex Adam is slowly but surely easing his way back into her life. And that Rita is apparently her AA sponsor of many years. So here is the dual relationship again — the friend who is also her sponsor.
This was difficult for me. I was critical of Paul in the first seasons for having a dual relationship with Gina, for the blurring of lines between friendship and supervision. But there was at least a nod given to the need for a professional component in that relationship, a component that is missing this season. All of us therapists have issues in our own lives. Part of our task is to stay on top of them and not use work with patients to deal with them. Supervision and personal therapy are the best checks on what we call countertransference. Given Brooke’s loss of her father and what seems to be complications in her relationship with her boyfriend, to say nothing of the stresses and strains she, like everyone, is subject to during the last year of COVID restrictions.
Rita does ask Brooke some pointed questions, but the fact remains they are friends and that is the relationship, not a therapeutic one. Which is not to say that friends cannot be immensely helpful but to me, this is a case where it would help a lot if Brooke availed herself of supervision and/or therapy.
So we’ll see how this unfolds.
2 Comments
Hello! I remembered reading your posts about the first seasons of In Treatment, and on a lark I googled your blog and was delighted to see you blogging about the new season! I’m going to look forward to reading your posts every week!
I agree about Laila, she comes off as quite off-putting. She’s clearly very intelligent, but is lacking in insight about herself, and it seems like she doesn’t very much want to be in therapy. She’s clearly lying about how often she has sex in an attempt to provoke Brooke. You could see her crack a little bit when talking about her schoolmate she had feelings for, I wonder where that will lead.
I had much the same reservations about Paul and Gina as you (to the point where I find those episodes almost impossible to go back to), and I think this new frame of an AA sponsor is super-interesting. It’s really a fascinating kind of relationship: the sponsor is explicitly not a professional, and there’s an inherent equality to the relationship (given that both parties are admitted addicts who know every detail about the worst things the other party has experienced) even while one is “treating” the other. I think it’s a great direction for In Treatment.
As I mentioned, looking forward to reading future posts!
I enjoyed the first three seasons of In Treatment immensely. My enjoyment was enhanced by reading your blog as i watched each episode. That was back in 2010 i guess and I was two years into my own private practice. It’s now the end of 2022, and i have just come across series 4. I immediately remembered your blogs and i am pleased to see you still here. I wonder how i will view and judge this series, now that i am in my 17th year of this strange profession.
Week one done, and i am liking Brooke. I especially like her forthrightness, both with Colin and Laila. I have similarly resistant clients (not patients in my world) and i am reminded of my need to be more direct sometimes.
What we discover in her conversation with Rita, confirms that Brooke has a lot going on in her personal life. And it is indeed spilling out, and contaminating her work. I agree with you that she needs some good supervision at least, but could also do with getting herself back into therapy.
I am so glad that you are still there, doing your thing. And i look forward to watching the rest of season 4, with your blog as my companion.