Published on January 2, 2024 by Zencare Team. Written by David Rothman, LCSW and Allegra Balmadier, Content Manager at Zencare.
Welcome to a new blog format! This article will update after each new episode of Shrinking Season 2, the first half of the season, with thoughts from Allegra, Zencare’s Content Manager (and big Shrinking fan) and insights from therapist David Rothman, LCSW. Note that this blog post is full of spoilers — you’ve been warned!
Introduction
What if therapists could break the rules and connect with their clients on a deeply human level? The TV series “Shrinking”, starring Jason Segel, Harrison Ford and Jessica Williams, brings this idea to life with a mix of humor, heartfelt moments, and profound therapy insights.
If you loved “Ted Lasso” and you’re looking to feel that magic again, we both highly recommend this show. It’s feel-good, it’s funny, it tackles real-life issues and the writing is fantastic.
If you missed Season 1, here’s the premise: Jimmy Laird is a therapist in California who has recently suffered the tragic death of his wife. He’s actively navigating grief alongside his teen daughter — both putting up “I’m fine” fronts, even though they’re both NOT fine.
In an attempt to gain control of something in his life (according to me, Allegra — not a therapist), Jimmy starts experimenting with how he’s treating his clients, feeling that many of them are stuck and not responding to the type of therapy that he’s constrained to.
In walks Sean, Jimmy’s new client thanks to court-ordered anger management. Sean is a veteran struggling with anger issues and PTSD. Jimmy realizes that “traditional” therapy methods probably won’t help Sean make tangible progress with the limited time that Sean is ordered to spend with Jimmy, and because of how unlikely it is he’ll come back of his own volition — Jimmy resorts to unconventional methods to get Sean to see progress, and that therapy is worth his time.
By the end of Season 1, Sean is living in Jimmy’s pool house, he’s been working through his anger issues, PTSD and reacclimating to life after serving in the military. He’s also started a new business with Jimmy’s neighbor Liz and he’s moving forward. And in general throughout the season, lines are being crossed big time. There are many other side plots and wonderful characters in this show, and we’ll be here forever if we have to cover it all from the first season. But if you haven’t seen the show — watch it — if you’ve seen it — enjoy our Season 2 coverage!
Season 2 — With Insights from a Therapist
Episode 1: Jimmying
Synopsis: We open Season 2 with Jimmy having to face some pretty harsh consequences of his unorthodox treatment — one of his clients, Grace with the emotionally abusive husband, landed in prison for “booping” him off a cliff (he survived) — kind of because of Jimmy’s suggestions in therapy. Paul’s relationship with his Parkinson’s doctor, Julie (but not anymore because of ethics) is growing more serious. Jimmy finds out that Sean calls “the weird therapy shit he does outside the office that Paul hates”, Jimmying, and loves it. Alice fears that her dad is regressing into the shell of a human he was right around when her mom first died. Gaby is having a hard time breaking off her friends-with-benefits situation with Jimmy. Sean tries to meet up with an old army buddy, but completely blows him off since he’s not able to face his past quite yet. And the big shocker at the end of the episode: the man who killed Jimmy’s wife (played by Brett Goldstein) in a car accident, Louis, shows up at Jimmy’s practice.
Allegra: First off let me say that this episode included my one specific fear — teeth falling out, so if you’re like me, you’ve been warned! It’s great to see Jimmy take a step in an ethical direction and hand Sean’s therapeutic care over to Paul. One thing that stood out most to me in this episode was Alice’s hyper-vigilance. She’s so worried and so vigilant about how her dad is doing that it’s taking a toll on her. And even though of the most shocking things about this episode was seeing Brett Goldstein without a beard, I was also shocked at how easy it was for her to pick up on her dad lying that he’s okay and how much it must have hurt to see that, especially when he had just promised to her that he was doing well.
David: Grace in jail: this is why therapists are told over and over again not to tell their patients what to do and instead, to help guide them in their own decision making. Jimmy was overly direct in telling Grace to leave her abusive relationship and it results in her “booping” her husband off a cliff and landing in jail. Honestly, Jimmy is lucky he didn’t lose his license over this alone.
As Allegra said, Jimmy makes a correct and ethical decision to transfer Sean’s case to Paul. Therapists out there: no, it’s a bad idea to offer to let your patients stay with you, it’s just a TV show!
It was heartbreaking to see Sean bail on seeing his army friend, but it’s a very realistic depiction of how trauma hijacks our behavior. Deep down, Sean wants to be able to see his friend, but his unresolved trauma makes it too difficult and overwhelming a task, so he avoids it, buying himself short-term relief, but of course this leads him to feel worse about himself. Sean could use some targeted trauma treatment.
Episode 2: I Love Pain
Synopsis: Jimmy is still having a hard time trying to figure out how to tell Alice about Louis and does it TERRIBLY. Paul drops his “favorite” client, Ray, due to his full caseload after taking Sean on as a client. Brian finds out that Jimmy and Gaby are in a situationship and feels betrayed. Sean wants his truck to feel like a fresh start, but has to face a hard conversation with Liz. Alice introduces her best friend Summer to her weird neighbor Connor. Gaby officially ends things with Jimmy, and the episode ends with Alice driving to Louis’s house and watching him from outside.
Allegra: I love how many parental figures Alice has in her life! Derek and Liz are gems. Also what does general therapist ethics say about being in a relationship with a fellow practice employee? I love that Paul provides Sean with actionable tools to use in the moment. Next time I’m having a hard time with ”pain” on the horizon, I’m going to try the “Reversal of Desire” tool, but it’s going to be Harrison Ford’s voice in my head saying “I love pain” and “Pain sets me free”. Summer offering actual helpful advice is shocking — writing a letter to someone you can’t communicate with is such great advice. It gets all the words and feelings out of you, very cathartic.
David: Allegra to answer your question, I think it’s generally fine for two therapists to be in a relationship with each other so long as there’s not a power differential. It’s definitely a boundary violation for Paul, Jimmy’s supervisor, to be giving free therapy to his daughter!
I love letter writing as an exercise! It not only can be cathartic, but it can help organize your thoughts and feelings by getting them out of your head. As a therapist, I love Paul’s intervention with Sean to have him imagine the worst case scenario! It’s a classic CBT technique: often the worst case scenarios we think about aren’t that realistic or likely; Sean demonstrates this when he imagines Liz freaking out in response to him expressing his feelings. Thankfully, Liz gives an understanding response in actuality once Sean talks to her for real.
Therapy stuff: Paul and Ray wouldn't be hanging out in real life! That's way too soon after the termination for them to hang out as friends, but hey, it was a huge moment of growth for Paul's character.
Episode 3: Psychological Something-ism
Synopsis: Sean runs into his Dad while running his food truck and it brings up a LOT of feelings. Grace believes that she deserves deep punishment for what she did to her husband, so she goes back to him. Paul meets Julie’s husband, Elliot, who is living with dementia in a care facility. Alice goes to the coffee shop where Louis works, and blows up at him. Liz sells her shares of the food truck to Sean’s dad, which was a big mistake. And Alice makes a biiiiiig mistake too at the end of the episode, jeopardizing her relationship with Summer.
Allegra: It seems that even though Paul likes to preach hard work, he’s looking for an easy way out with Julie by trying to get her to break up with him. I love how much Derek has come through in this season as more of a prominent character, he’s got some good one-liners and he’s got such a fun personality, but he’s also incredibly level headed and he’s got this great way of having lovely, unique and meaningful relationships with each character — we should all take a chapter out of his book! As for Alice, I never understood the panic attack to sleep with your best friend’s summer fling pipeline, but man is it sticky — I hope Alice can deal with the consequences that will come along with this.
David: Regarding Alice: she’s clearly dysregulated at the end of the episode, and people often don’t make their best decisions when they’re emotionally distraught. She acted out of impulse here because she needed the comfort and knew Connor had feelings for her; all that to say, her actions here aren’t entirely unrealistic.
I have to say: man, Jimmy is fortunate that Grace gets out of jail. Her behavior is also realistic: she’s acting on an impulse to punish herself for pushing Donny off the cliff; she was convinced that she would stay out of jail and is not convinced that it was the right thing for her to be released, hence the self-punishment. As a therapist, it can be excruciating for us to witness a patient fall back into old, self-destructive patterns. Fortunately, Grace has a strong support in her sister, and the affirmations from her friends and sister end up moving her in the right direction: into her sister’s place in Vancouver, away from the abusive and toxic Donny.
Episode 4: Made You Look
Synopsis: Brian and Charlie try to figure out if they want to adopt a child. Sean’s unresolved conflict with his dad begins to pile up and his anger issues start to resurface again. Derek introduces Derrick (aka Coach from New Girl), to the group – potentially for Gaby? Either way, Derrick and Gaby hit it off big time. Jimmy is trying to keep his promise to Paul to stay out of Sean’s business and not be his therapist. Louis shows up outside of Jimmy and Alice’s house — Brian catches him.
Allegra: Ugh this episode just breaks my heart for Sean. I think that there’s a lot of parents out there who have a hard time listening to their children's needs. It seems like specifically with Sean’s dad, he’s doubling down on the fact that kicking Sean out of the house is what led to the progress they’re seeing, not therapy and hard work. It’s so frustrating seeing a parent take credit for the wrong thing and not acknowledging your child’s effort. And on a different note, everyone needs a Derek in their life. Or you need to be the Derek in your life!
David: Random notes: Alice sure seems like she regrets her choices at the start of the episode! I love the instant chemistry Derrick and Gaby have.
It’s hard to watch Sean this episode because he sort of backslides into his anger behaviors that he worked so hard to untangle from. This is due to Sean’s PTSD being triggered by his father; his father invalidated his postwar experience by “acting like everything is okay”. The scene where Sean’s father (Tim) arrogantly takes credit for Sean’s progress. There’s a moment where it seems like Sean might lose it on Jimmy, but Jimmy shows a ton of courage by holding his ground and showing Sean calm, grounded compassion.
Therapy stuff: Jimmy and Paul definitely needed more collaborative conversations before transferring Sean’s case to Paul, that’s part of best practice for transferring care of a patient. Thankfully, both gentlemen are able to put their egos aside to help out Sean. It's still weird for me to see Sean living with Jimmy!
Episode 5: Honesty Era
Synopsis: Liz runs into an old flame (Mac, aka Grayson from Cougar Town, a show they were previously on together!) and Derek is upset. Jimmy’s Andre the Giant impression is amazing. Summer finds out about Alice and Connor hooking up. We get more insight into Gaby’s issues with her sister and mom. We meet Paul’s ex-wife (Emily from Gilmore Girls!) while his daughter’s family is in town for her work event. Brian continues to freak out about not wanting a baby but somehow goes through the pre-adoption and adoption process. We end this episode with Sean getting into a fight and seriously injured.
Allegra: Hearing Emily Gilmore say “Little baby chicken bitch” was probably the highlight of this episode for me. But on a mental health note, I want to continue my frustrations with Sean’s father. In this episode you see parallel scenes of Paul and his ex-wife talking through past issues, and Sean and his father attempting to do the same. Paul and his ex-wife’s conversation goes well, and they have a great talk! But when we jump to Sean and his dad, it takes a turn for the worse. They, and we the audience, don’t get that resolution. Sean’s dad blames it on therapy, and how it makes you “blame the parents”. It’s so disheartening to see someone not understand how therapy is a tool for progress, and not a way to “assign blame” to someone.
David: The opener of this episode is…Paul (therapist), hanging out with Sean (his current patient), and Jimmy (Sean’s former therapist)... oy this this stuff they warned us against in grad school lol. Then, the next scene is Gaby oversharing about her mom’s accident with her patients who are waiting to start their couples session and have to cut her off to get started talking about their issues (budding therapists at home: never do that!).
Summer is rightfully furious after finding out about Connor and Alice; it’s sweet to see Jimmy trying his best to show up for his daughter, but it makes sense that Alice is not fully ready to trust her dad yet. I also felt frustrated with Tim, especially since Sean used heartfelt, assertive communication to express his issues with him. This ends up, not surprisingly, with Sean getting in a fight at the end of the episode.
Episode 6: In a Lonely Place
Synopsis: Sean’s in the hospital after getting into a fight with the construction workers from the neighborhood. Paul and Jimmy try to speak with Sean’s dad Tim. Alice finds out Brian has been hanging out with Louis on the down-low, and finally gets the opportunity to face him properly. Liz reconnects with that old flame Mac, we smell trouble.
Allegra: “I feel more awful now than I did an hour ago — is that what therapy is?” Yup pretty much! What I’ve learned from therapy is that it’s mostly a “you feel worse before you feel better” sort of thing. Progress requires work, and work isn’t easy. And neither is facing the drunk driver who killed your mom! I can’t imagine Alice’s strength and bravery.
David: Seeing Sean hospitalized after initially trying to do the right thing by confronting his father is heartbreaking. I’m glad that Tim eventually admitted his own mistakes, that he didn’t know how to support his son after he came back from war and was suffering from PTSD. Tim takes a step towards rebuilding his relationship with Sean at the nudging of Sean’s former and present therapist (probably not too realistic, but hey it’s TV!).
It’s really fascinating to see Alice’s mix of emotions around Louis: she’s simultaneously angry, curious, grief-stricken, and anxious. Her giving Louis a chance to express his regret shows what a big heart she has; it takes tremendous empathy to hear out the person that killed your parent, albeit incidentally. It takes even more empathy for her to express her genuine forgiveness towards him. Shoutout to Brett Goldstein for his amazing portrayal of the tortured Louis.
To Be Continued…
We will continue coverage of Season 2 of Shrinking and the remaining six episodes in another blog post!
If you relate to any of the struggles that Shrinking characters are going through, you might find that therapy would be a helpful tool in improving your mental health and well-being. Finding a therapist who gets you and who understands the challenges you’re experiencing can be tricky, but Zencare makes it easy. Use our filters, schedule free consults and find your fit today.