The doctor was double booked. Just be happy today wasn’t group therapy!
In fiction, There Are No Therapists... until there actually are.
Therapy is the domain of medical practice in which patients afflicted with problematic health conditions receive long-term treatment to relieve and recover from their negative effects. In broad semantic terms, "therapy" applies to a wide domain of treatments in response to a menagerie of different problems, mental and physical, though in most modern-day settings, "therapy" is frequently used as colloquial shorthand to refer more specifically to "psychotherapy" and matters particular to that of mental health. Such practices come in as many different shapes and forms as there are issues that individuals may face, some treatments more effective than others depending on the situation, but whatever the case, therapy is considered a very necessary, important field for individuals to heal, especially those dealing with conditions where there is no straightforward "cure."
Stories often rarely address the existence of therapy (at least in a professional sense), but this is by no means a hard-set rule. Perhaps there is a point in a series where a character experiences a dramatic physical injury or debilitating mental condition that leads them to seek help, and the story will decide to explore their experience with it. Since therapy almost always involves the guided assistance of a medical professional, this is usually a very character-focused type of episode that highlights what their condition is, how it's affecting them, and how they respond to their treatment. Perhaps the subject of a given episode may go in with thinking Therapy Is for the Weak, but end up learning a lesson about accepting help as they recover.
Some more optimistic stories might have whatever condition affecting the character be "cured" by the end of the given episode, sometimes with just a dramatically conclusive pep talk, but some might cop to the knowledge that, realistically speaking, therapy is a long-term process that requires a lot of maintenance that will need to be continued it for as long as it takes, even after the cameras stop rolling, if not the rest of their lives.
Depending on the condition, this might also overlap with a Sick Episode. Related are Physical Therapy Plot and Mental Health Recovery Arc, where the issue of someone recovering their physical and mental health may be denoted with at least one of these kinds of episodes. See also The Shrink for various characterizations of mental health specialists. See Amateur Therapist for when the character talks to a trusted friend or loved one instead of a trained therapist/counselor. If the character going to therapy is also a therapist, see Therapist in Therapy. Contrast with There Are No Therapists.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- Heroes in Crisis: The story largely revolves around Sanctuary, a hidden facility where superheroes can get therapy without fear of their secret identities being revealed. The story is occasionally interrupted by recordings of superheroes confessing their issues, doubts, and struggles, and it ends with An Aesop encouraging people to seek professional help if they need it.
- The Incredible Hulk (1968): In issue #377, with the Savage Hulk and Joe Fixit warring inside his mind, Dr. Samson puts Bruce Banner and the two Hulks through a therapy session to work through their problems. It works quite well and it leads to the creation of the Merged Hulk as the three personalities join as one (though, this is later retconned into being that this was actually a new personality that took over known as The Professor).
- Paperinik New Adventures: Played for Laughs. A few sidestories follow Lyla Lay, an android from the 23rd century, as she goes to therapy with a doctor specializing in droids. Being an android she doesn't actually get mental health issues, but she vents her frustrations with living in the 20th/21st century - like how inane she finds the expression "salt to taste" since she doesn't eat and has no idea how much salt would be tasty.
- The Spectacular Spider-Men: Issue 8, "Triage", has Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and other victims of the Arcadium, a simulation that brings people's deepest desires to life, assemble a group therapy session. Each participant discusses the implications behind their fantasies and how they've been personally affected after being abruptly ripped from them. They continue to hold these sessions in further issues.
- Transformers: More than Meets the Eye: The Lost Light's crew included Rung, an Autobot therapist who was shown working with various crewmembers from time to time about the traumas they suffered during the Great War. He had some success with Whirl, but his attempts to help Fortress Maximus recover from the torture he'd suffered at the hands of Overlord went badly when Maximus snapped and took both Rung and Whirl hostage. The standoff ended with Rung accidentally being shot in the head (he got better). And then there was his attempt to work with Megatron...
Megatron: Enough's enough. Two hours listening to you tell my why I used to wear a giant weapon on my arm. I hate to disappoint you, Rung, but sometimes a fusion cannon is just a fusion cannon.
- X-Factor: Both the second and third volumes of the comic feature an issue where the group have individual therapy sessions with Doc Samson. The results vary from "a little helpful" to "not helpful at all" (with Samson acknowledging how messed up they all are).
Fan Works
- The Blue Dragon (Batman): After Zuko has a panic attack, Batman starts looking into getting him a therapist. After a failed attempt with Harley Quinn, Dinah Lance becomes Zuko's regular therapist. In their first session, she diagnoses him with PTSD and starts planning ways to help him treat it.
- The Door (Zootopia): A few months after Judy formally adopts Eli, she and Nick notice that he's still showing unusual behavior (frequent apologizing, not always reacting well to attention from adults, food hoarding, etc) and decide that he should see a child psychologist. This is followed by a chapter where Eli goes to see Barry, a polar bear child psychologist, to finally get help dealing with his Dark and Troubled Past.
- Two Shades Of Blue: Due to teleporting during a PTSD-induced panic attack, Rise's Leonardo ends up in the world of the 2012 Turtles, and can't teleport back until he's in a better state of mind. Most of the fan comic shows the 2012 Turtles helping "Leon" work through his emotions. At the same time, Leon's arrival helps the 2012 Turtles work through the issues they've been having lately.
- With Pearl and Ruby Glowing: Several members of the Palace, a support group for rape survivors, are mentioned to also attend therapy for their trauma, with some of these sessions being shown in Calisota Healthcare and other side-stories. For example, Scrooge and Glomgold meet with Sadness to discuss their rivalry, which was caused by Scrooge getting Glomgold arrested in South Africa, where he was assaulted in prison.
Live-Action TV
- The Brittas Empire: In "That Creeping Feeling", Brittas sends over a psychologist to the centre to combat what he believes is the sick behaviour of people giving him the Silent Treatment (they were angry at him for spying on them and using photos of them getting changed for their fitness target documents). After the psychologist spends time with the staff members (as well as Helen), he concludes that it's not them who are sick, but rather Brittas himself, although he refuses to accept the psychologist's belief that he should give up his Dream to make everyone happier.
- Castle: Dr. Carter Burker, played by Michael Dorn, has provided counseling to both Beckett and Castle.
- In "Kill Shot", Burke has to help Beckett cope when the circumstances of the current case, involving a serial sniper, remind her of her own incident of being shot.
Beckett: No, you don't understand. I need to be okay.
Burke: That's not always a choice, Kate. What you're describing, hypervigilance, it's a classic symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Beckett: I don't have PTSD.
Burke: You were shot, by a sniper. I think it's fair to say this case is going to bring up issues. Issues you still haven't dealt with.
Beckett: Okay, then fine, I'll deal with them. Right now, I need to figure out how to make this stop.
Burke: It's not going to stop. Not without time and treatment. The psychological trauma is every bit as real as the physical trauma. - "Sleeper" has Castle go to Burke after he starts having recurring dreams involving his missing two months. When Burke asks him if he's ever been in therapy before, Castle quips that he tries to avoid introspection. However, he quickly gets serious when talking about the missing time in his life and the dreams he's having.
Burke: Well, dreams can be memories. But more often, they're symbolic, metaphoric expressions of an issue or problem. You're also a writer, a creative person. This could mean your mind is building a narrative to fill the two-month void.
- In "Kill Shot", Burke has to help Beckett cope when the circumstances of the current case, involving a serial sniper, remind her of her own incident of being shot.
- CSI: NY:
- While department-mandated therapy is mentioned when various officer-involved shootings occur, the only on-screen visit shown is Lindsay's final one with the therapist who signs off on her having attended all her required sessions after shooting the serial killer who'd been stalking her family, had invaded their home and threatened her child. Before cutting her loose in "The 34th Floor", the woman expresses a bit of concern that, after five months, she still doesn't know much about Lindsay, who replies that her private life is none of the woman's business.
- In "Clue:SI", a therapist's patients are being picked off one by one in rather unusual ways. Turns out, another patient got upset when the doctor referred him to someone else when she realized he had developed feelings for her. Their original session and the one where she tells him she can no longer treat him are shown in flashback.
- The ER episode "Fevers Of Unknown Origin" is this, with Dr. Susan Lewis seeing one to help her cope with losing the Custody Battle of her infant niece to the child's birth mother, her sister.
- Frasier:
- The episode "Shrink Rap" involves Niles and Frasier seeking help from a couples therapist after they decide to work together in the same building. The session quickly takes a "Rashomon"-Style turn, with the brothers taking potshots at each other and insulting each other while adding details to their own versions of the events that transpired to make themselves look better. Eventually it gets to the point where, after a trust fall exercise goes wrong, the therapist decides to walk out and head for the pub — not that it matters to Frasier or Niles once they find out where the therapist got his degree from and deem him a fraud.
- In "Dark Side of the Moon", Daphne attends court-mandated anger management therapy after snapping at her neighbor and causing a pile-up on the street from tossing the neighbor's wet clothes off of the balcony and onto the windshields of the cars below. The episode begins with her in the session doing an Inkblot Test, and then shows the events that led up to her getting in trouble and attending therapy in the first place.
- Full House: The episode "Aftershocks" takes place after an earthquake hit San Francisco. Since that day, Stephanie has been unusually clingy towards Danny. The other adults notice something's wrong, but Danny doesn't believe there's anything serious happening...until Stephanie starts freaking out when Danny says he's going to a business dinner and only calms down when he says he won't go. This prompts Danny to take Stephanie to a child psychologist, who explains to Danny that there's nothing wrong with someone, especially children, needing to talk to a professional when they have a problem. Stephanie ends up revealing that Danny came home late the day of the earthquake, and she was terrified she'd never see him again. The adults help Stephanie calm down and promise to help. By the next episode, she's back to normal.
- iCarly: In the episode "iSam's Mom", Sam and her estranged mother, Pam, finally reach their breaking point, with Carly tricking them into attending therapy in a desperate bid to have them make up and get along (and also to get Sam to move out of her apartment). The therapist unfortunately finds himself overwhelmed by the two's inability to stop arguing with each other, and it takes locking them in a claustrophobic room and for Carly to end up stuck in it with them that they finally decide to resolve things.
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: In "The Gang Gets Analyzed", Dee ends up bringing the rest of The Gang to her therapy session just so they can settle who should wash the dishes. While the therapist tries to do her best with each of them, the group ether do not make any actual progress (either misunderstanding or misinterpret her words) and the episode ends with her finally snapping and yelling at Dee to do the dishes so they can leave.
- K.C. Undercover had "Holly Holly Not So Jolly", where K.C. is feeling downcast over finding the perfect gift and goes to the Organization's therapist Dr. Levenstien, where she reflects on her past missions as a spy.
- Miranda has a Bottle Episode that takes place entirely in her therapist's office, as Miranda and Penny attempt to improve their relationship and expectations with each other.
- On Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024), the titular couple, spies married for the purpose of their job, have a "Couple's Therapy" episode. Unfortunately for them, because All Therapists Are Muggles, they are forced to couch their descriptions of the problems they are having at work in the lie of being software engineers. It does not end well, with them setting the therapist's home on fire at the end after learning that there was a clause they missed in her contract that she was recording their sessions to review together later.
- NCIS: A subplot of the episode "Twofer" is Gibbs and McGee undergoing psychiatric evaluations before they can return to duty after being rescued from two months of captivity in Paraguay. Gibbs's attitude toward shrinks is well known, especially to the doctor who's doing the evals, so it's a surprise to everyone when he actually admits he needs the help. McGee is trying to be The Stoic and just tough it out, but after seeing Gibbs admit his problems and accept the therapist's help, McGee is able to do the same.
- NUMB3RS: "Take Out": After the Crystal Hoyle incident, Don is sent to see Dr. William Bradford, mostly as a review of the shooting but it soon becomes a regular thing for Don for the rest of the series, as he deals with personal issues and helps him gain a better understanding of himself.
- Only Murders in the Building: This is the B-plot in the season 5 episode "Cuckoo Chicks"; while Mabel is doing a Girl's Night Out Episode at a ladies casino night hosted by Camila White, Charles and Oliver try to prevent residents from selling their units to her and letting her become a Majority-Share Dictator. They latch onto Doctor Stanley, a psychiatrist, who had agreed to sell (which would give Camila control) but had until midnight to change his mind; unfortunately he only agrees to hear them out if they pay for a session. It ultimately turns out quite therapeutic for Charles, who realizes his unhealthy relationship patterns caused by his abusive mother, which lead to some Character Development, and ultimately use therapeutic techniques to convince Stanley not to sell. Unfortunately they miss the deadline.
- Scrubs: Zigzagged in one episode. Cox is talking to someone about his issues with anger and fear as a framing device for the events of the episode, and it has been shown in a previous episode that Cox has a therapist named Dr. Gross. However, in this instance, we learn that the person Cox is relating all the events of the week to are not Dr. Gross, but instead his own infant son.
- Sliders: Season 2's "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome" is a Whole Episode Flashback of Rembrandt talking with a therapist to get some stress off his chest about the events of a recent slide, where he and the others had arrived in a parallel San Fransisco that was nearly identical to their own — so identical that they thought it was their own until key differences proved otherwise, and they ended up sliding out with three of the Sliders uncertain if the fourth was the original or his potentially hostile double. In the end, the therapy session is interrupted by it being time to slide again, resulting in Rembrandt and his friends departing for another world and leaving a shell-shocked therapist (who had believed Rembrandt was simply delusional and was preparing to have him committed, only to see otherwise when the slide vortex appeared) behind.
- Superman & Lois: "Holding the Wrench" shows Lois visiting her old psychiatrist after she harshly snaps at Jonathan for putting himself in danger. This reveals she was triggered by the discovery that her alternate universe self had a daughter named Natalie, as she and Clark in this universe had a miscarriage after the twins were born, and had planned to name that child Natalie. Lois explains this to Jonathan afterwards, and Jon forgives her.
- Ted Lasso: In "Goodbye Earl", Dani Rojas accidentally hits and kills Richmond's canine mascot Earl with a penalty kick, traumatizing him badly enough that the club has to bring in a psychologist, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, to get him to recover. Dr. Sharon remains at the club for the rest of the season, and in "Headspace", Ted himself begins using her services to help deal with his panic attacks. Given his prior bad experiences with therapists, however, it takes another episode and a slam on the Trauma Button before he's able to take the process seriously.
- Victorious: In "Beck's Big Break", Robbie's subplot involves him having to speak to the school guidance counselor, Lane, about his reoccurring nightmares about being abused by Rex — his ventriloquist puppet. Lane treats the whole thing like couple's therapy, where he takes the weird situation very seriously and teaches Robbie to stand up for himself.
- The West Wing:
- In the second season episode "Noel", Josh, who had been shot earlier in the season and nearly died, is told to see Dr. Stanley Spector, a psychiatrist with the American Trauma Victim's Association, when he starts snapping at everyone in the office, including President Bartlet. Turns out what caused Josh to snap was hearing music in the White House (which reminded him of sirens at the scene of the shooting) and the fact he was investigating the suicide of a pilot who happened to have the same birthday as Josh.
- Stanley returned to the show for the third season episode "Night Five", this time to talk to President Bartlet, who was dealing with issues with his father.
- In the Wild Cards (2024) episode "Eternal Sunshine on the Therapized Mind", Ellis and Max go undercover at a wellness retreat to determine who killed a therapist. While there, they both endure therapy sessions, where Ellis is forced to confront why he's so obsessed with a job that doesn't bring him satisfaction, while Max confronts the realization that despite all of her past experiences, she trusts Ellis with her life.
- You (2018): In "So I Married An Axe Murderer", Joe and Love are in couple's therapy together due to their disagreements surrounding Love's murder of Natalie Engler. It's played for Black Comedy; both are unable to tell the therapist what's really going on, so they resort to passive-aggressive comments and vague, intentionally ambiguous statements. Interspersed are scenes of the direct aftermath, many of which take the form of an Answer Cut. It serves to show the true feelings of both Joe and Love as they're forced to talk to a professional, while the audience gets to see what went down that night.
Music
- Little Simz: In her song "Therapy", Simz imagines herself speaking to an unseen therapist, exploring the reasons why she doesn't believe she needs to seek help but nevertheless gives the idea the benefit of the doubt. She makes it clear that she knows that she's stressed out about her life and emotions, but that she ultimately doesn't need some hypothetical miracle individual or epiphany to "save" her, trusting in herself to be able to surmount her problems on her own.
Professional Wrestling
- Mark Henry: During his infamous tenure as "Sexual Chocolate" — with WWE pushing him as being the deluded but ever-so-persistent "World's Largest Love Machine" — he attended a series of sex therapy sessions in 1999 to address his nymphomania. On account of his therapists either getting him to confess to very awkward things (such as having his first sexual experience at the age of eight with his sister), appearing too attractive, appearing too unattractive, or being a flaming Camp Gay stereotype, he gave up and opted to embrace his sexual appetite.
- Team Hell No: The Tag Team was formed as an extensive effort to make Daniel Bryan and Kane get along, and as part of the effort, they were forced to attend anger management classes in the summer of 2012. This led to a series of skits of the duo attending group therapy under the guidance of Dr. Shelby, which — considering they are respectively the most hot-headed Granola Guy in all of WWE and a masked monster with demonic origins — led to rather ridiculous places, including deconstructing Kane's ludicrous backstory and lots and lots of mandated hugging.
Video Games
- God of War Ragnarök: The Valhalla DLC serves as a large therapy session for Kratos as he confronts his past atrocities and comes to terms with his title as the God of War. Each boss fight is against Týr, who fights Kratos in Valhalla through various sparring matches. Týr hopes to recontextualize Kratos's past actions so that he sees them in a less dire light and so he can prepare Kratos to face his past head-on.
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus: The B plot of "Mystery of Mildenhall Manor" is Caine holding a therapy session for Zooble to find out why they haven't been engaging with Caine's adventures lately. We learn Zooble has explained their self-image issues before, but Caine's limited AI can't remember.
- hololive: In September 2022
, Ouro Kronii and Vesper Noir hosted a "psychiatry" stream in which Vesper operated a Peanuts psychiatric help stand, offering to talk Kronii through her pressing issues, starting from her finding her own reflection overbearingly loving. The session quickly goes off the rails, with Vesper getting his credentials questioned, Kronii making bizarre leaps of logic to justify her habits, and effectively leaving both of them mentally fried.
- The Stinger for season 1 of Journey to the Quest has Jeremy speaking to the therapist that Rayne recommended to him and managing to have a breakthrough on why he and his brother have grown so distant. Atypically, it's made clear that he's already had several sessions with her before reaching this point and they're going to continue afterwards.
Webcomics
- Episodes 159-161 of Lore Olympus are about Persephone having a therapy session with Chiron.
Web Original
- The Angry Video Game Nerd: "The Nerd's Anger Management" is a thirty-minute audio track narrated by The Nerd (and/or James Rolfe) presented as a relaxation tape, calmly narrating to the listener half-joking, half-serious instructions on how to ease their anxiety.
- Scott The Woz: Some episodes focus on Scott talking to his therapist Jerry Attricks, such as "The Dark Age of Nintendo" Trilogy (where Scott complains about Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, and Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash) and the "Horror Games" episode (where Scott wants to conquer his fear of fear by talking about Horror Video Games).
Western Animation
- Arthur: In "Shelter from the Storm", Brain becomes paranoid when a hurricane causes his family's ice cream shop to collapse, even though they did all the preparations to keep it safe. He begins going to therapy, where the therapist recommends breathing exercises and a mantra to remind him that there is nothing to be scared of, eventually causing him to overcome his trauma.
- Big City Greens: In the episode "Unguarded", Vasquez is told by Remy that he no longer needs him. Because of his unhealthy attachment to Remy, Russell and Rashida reveal that they hired a therapist for him named Dr. Maya Bloom. This episode reveals how Vasquez became Remy's bodyguard.
- Dan Vs.: In "Dan Vs. Anger Management", Dan and Chris attend four weeks of court-mandated Anger Management classes. The seemingly easygoing Chris realizes that he's been repressing his anger by overeating. Meanwhile, the perpetually angry Dan stubbornly refuses to learn anything, and instead makes it his goal to get the instructor, Amber, to unleash her own suppressed rage. This works a little too well: Amber starts plotting revenge against everyone who's wronged her, and she blackmails Dan into helping her carry out these schemes. Dan's normally all for revenge, but Amber manages to make even him uncomfortable. For the first time, Dan actually reads his Anger Management textbook, looking for some technique to resolve the situation. When Amber has a complete meltdown on the final day of class, Dan uses what he learned to talk her down, averting disaster. Dan successfully graduates—and then the sight of a nearby squirrel sets him off on another rage-fueled revenge quest.
- Daria: In "Psycho Therapy", the Morgendorffers are forced to attend a weekend-long seminar at a mental health facility. This leads to a lot of arguing and hurt feelings as the counselors drag the Dysfunctional Family's issues out into the open. When asked about her opinion, Daria sums it all up in the hopes of being allowed to leave early, although she does later comfort her mother and admit that they could all stand to do better, showing the therapy wasn't a complete waste.
Daria: Mom's resentful that she has to work so hard, which obscures her guilt about actually wanting to work so hard. Dad's guilty about being less driven than Mom, but thinks it's wrong to feel that way, so he hides behind a smokescreen of cluelessness. Quinn wears superficiality like a suit of armor, 'cause she's afraid of looking inside and finding absolutely nothing. And I'm so defensive that I actively work to make people dislike me so I won't feel bad when they do. Can I go now?
- Dennis the Menace (1986): In "Shock Therapy", Mr. Wilson goes to a psychiatrist to talk about the times Dennis caused problems for him.
- Family Guy: Early episodes of the series had Brian periodically see a psychiatrist named Dr. Kaplan, some of their sessions greatly factoring into the plots of said episodes.
- The episode "Brian in Love" sees Brian seeking therapy after it's discovered he's chronically incontinent, seemingly due to stress. As they do their best to attempt to resolve Brian's issues, Dr. Kaplan ends up identifying the fact that Brian, against his better judgement, is in love with Lois, the Happily Married wife to his best friend Peter.
- "The Thin White Line" sees Brian continuing to see Dr. Kaplan over a lack of fulfillment in his life, with Kaplan suggesting to Brian to take up volunteer work. This leads to Brian becoming a police officer, and an initially very effective one at that, but he ends up developing a drug problem after using the cocaine he seizes, forcing the Griffins (with Dr. Kaplan's guided assistance) to stage an intervention that leads to Brian attending rehab.
- A non-Brian example is "Send In Stewie, Please", where Stewie spends the episode talking to a child psychologist. He was sent there after having pushed a bit down the stairs, and reveals many hidden truths about himself.
- Hey Arnold!: The episode "Helga on the Couch" has Helga meeting with the school's new child psychologist Dr. Bliss after her aggression goes too far. This episode reveals a lot of Helga's Freudian Excuse.
- I Am Weasel: In "He Said, He Said", the Red Guy, in disguise as Sigmund Fraud, simultaneously attends therapy sessions with Weasel and Baboon, complete with lie-down couches and a reference to dreaming in German. Never mind that he's a certified psycotic, and his "psychiatrist licence" was crudely modified.
- Looney Tunes: The plot of "Tweet Dreams" consists of Sylvester seeking help from a psychiatrist on why he wasn't able to capture Tweety. Which he does with clips from previous cartoons.
- Miraculous Ladybug: In "Wreckless Driver", Aglae's fear of insects has reached the point where she's nearly incapable of functioning outdoors, which is a problem because the school campus includes multiple open-air spaces. Thus, Alya and several of the other students convince her to get an appointment with the school therapist, during which she reveals that her fear of bugs began after she nearly died during the events of "Timebreaker",, then got worse after a cruel prank caused her to become akumatized into a butterfly-themed supervillain. The episode also sees Adrien seeking therapy for his many issues with his father, though the results of that session are not shown.
- Phineas and Ferb: In “Deconstructing Doof”, Doof and Candace are both seeing the same therapist, who begins to notice that certain events in their sessions tend to line up, and begins to construct a theory connecting them that might actually explain the seemingly random events in Danville.
- Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon": The infamous episode "Ren Seeks Help" sees Ren realizing he crossed a line from doing an unspecified, but evidently heinous act against Stimpy and decides to seek professional help for his sociopathic tendencies. It quickly goes wrong, instead going into a disturbing dive into Ren's past and the frightening things he engaged in as a child, not helped by how his "therapist" isn't even a real doctor, and in fact is so freaked out by Ren that he attempts to kill him.
- Rick and Morty: The episode "Pickle Rick" has Rick turning himself into a pickle to avoid going to family therapy. While Morty, Summer, and Beth go to counselling, Rick goes on a crazy adventure killing a bunch of guards in a secure compound. Rick eventually makes it to the therapist's office, admitting to lying to get out of therapy, to which the therapist tells him he uses his scientific intelligence to avoid the necessary work of self-improvement.
- Rugrats: In "Momma Trauma", Didi decides to talk with a therapist when Tommy colors on the walls, afraid of some lingering issue. Stu is skeptical of "shrinks", but when Tommy slips away to explore the building, it turns into Stu's therapy session and he comes away with a more positive opinion of therapy.
- The Simpsons:
- In "Fear of Flying", Marge goes into therapy to figure out why she has such a crippling bad fear of flying.
- In the B-plot of "Yokel Chords" Bart is sent to mandatory therapy after frightening his peers with a particularly gruesome story. Initially he’s resistant, but quickly grows attached to the child psychologist to the point that he doesn’t want to stop seeing her.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Invoked in "Fear of a Krabby Patty". Plankton drives SpongeBob into insanity by tricking Mr. Krabs into overworking him, then disguises himself as a therapist and tricks SpongeBob into visiting him, all in the hope that he can get the exhausted SpongeBob to divulge the Krabby Patty formula during their sessions. It doesn't quite work out that way.
- The Transformers: In Webworld, Cyclonus attempts to get Galvatron therapy by sending him to the Torkulon, the therapeutic planet. The Freudian Couch, art therapy, and group theater all fail miserably, and Galvatron winds up destroying the whole planet.
- Young Justice (2010):
- The B-plot of the season 1 episode "Disordered" sees Black Canary acting as a therapist for the traumatized members of the Team after the training exercise in the previous episode went horribly wrong. The sessions proved important for their further character growth, such as Robin deciding to become his own hero rather than a second Batman.
- The season 4 episode "Forbidden Secrets of Civilizations Past!" saw Beast Boy, who had been struggling mentally throughout the season following Conner's apparent death much to the detriment of his health, work, and relationships, take a health check with Black Canary that ends with him finally accepting help. This was further expanded upon a few episodes later in the episode "Ego and Superego" which showed him attending group therapy and on his way to recovery.
