Getting It Right - Page 2


In the first week, Paul has to intervene with a couple when the husband, Jake, verbally attacks his wife, Amy, because she's been considering an abortion without consulting him. Look, Paul says, it's not just about this decision you have to make. He points out Jake's belligerence and Amy's sneering evasion. Then he asks, Isn't this all really about your relationship?

Our relationship?! Jake shouts, Are you serious?! How do you sleep at night? We came here for advice about this pregnancy! He yells some more, and then stomps out.

I felt a jolt of recognition. Sure, that's how a couple sometimes deals with their own disheartening sensations: they turn on the therapist; they accuse the therapist of letting them down. Every couples therapist knows what I'm talking about. Well, I thought, the writers got that right.

Next evening, Paul meets with Gina, now retired and trying to write fiction. These two have been estranged for more than nine years, since the time he left her supervision in a huff at how she'd interfered with his work. Their falling-out hardened when Paul failed to show up at her husband's funeral. The memory of that act obviously still hurts her. You must have been really angry at me, she observes, not to have attended David's funeral.

I was watching the program with a group of therapist friends who'd gathered to see a week's worth of episodes. All of us were old hands at supervising other therapists. Some of us had met long ago behind the one-way mirrors of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, and now we sat entranced in front of a wide-screen television set. Hmmm, the group was wondering, why has Paul come back to this confusing relationship with Gina? Supervision is meant to be a safe-enough place to take an honest look at your work, to figure out what you're missing, what you could be doing differently. Gina herself is curious about why Paul is seeking her help.

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