Therapist in Therapy

Scott Wozniak: You don't know what it's like to go to therapy!
Jerry Attricks: Hey, I got a life outside of this job! I go to therapy twice a week!
Scott Wozniak: You're a therapist! Where do you go to therapy?
Jerry Attricks: The mirror.

— Scott The Woz

The field of psychotherapy and people's understanding and reception of it has evolved in recent history. What was once derided and stigmatized as a sign of weakness and an expensive placebo has gradually been taken more seriously by people who have come to realize the importance of mental health and wellbeing.

While the idea of a person seeing a therapist has been gradually embraced in society, the concept of a therapist seeing a therapist is somewhat unusual. This isn't to say that therapists shouldn't be seeing therapists, but much like a chef going to another restaurant, the idea of a professional seeing another professional in their own field is actually quite fascinating.

However, this is, needless to say, Truth in Television. Therapists are as human as their patients and need mental health care as much as a dentist needs dental care. In fact, most therapists report having been in therapy themselves and some jurisdictions actually require therapists attend sessions as a condition of maintaining their licenses.

Compare The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes.

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Examples:

Comic Book

• Spider-Man: A non-canon story by writer Stan Lee and artist Marcos Martin's non-canon story "Identity Crisis" (not to be confused with the in-canon 616 story of the same name) printed as a backup Spidey Sunday Stories had Spider-Man goes to a psychologist Dr. Gray Madder (a pun on gray matter) and talking to him about his identity issues, which involve the constant changes and endless retcons to his supporting cast and rogues, such as his Aunt May being alive and dead, his marriage to MJ being retconned in and out, her being pregnant and not, Green Goblin dying and coming back, lampshading the bizarre changes to Spider-Man continuity that actually drives Dr. Gray Madder nuts and has him going to a shrink.

Films — Live-Action

• Prime: Lisa (played by Meryl Streep) sees a therapist frequently. She expresses various emotions about her son dating one of her patients.
• What About Bob?: Dr. Leo Marvin is driven to madness, and a mental hospital, after being forced to contend with the eponymous Bob.

Live-Action TV

• Hannibal: This is the case for Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist who is, in turn, seeing his own psychiatrist. Said psychiatrist happens to be his mentor, Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier, who later becomes involved with Hannibal's criminal life.
• The short-lived Ted Danson sitcom Help Me Help You had his character Dr. Bill Hoffman as a therapist who also attended group therapy with several other therapists.
• How to Get Away with Murder: Isaac Roa, a psychiatrist Annalise sees in season 4, also sees his ex-wife Jacqueline for his own therapy. And yes, the fact that that's a conflict of interest is brought up.
• In Treatment: Dr. Paul Weston, a private psychotherapist, sees Dr. Diane Tull, his therapist and mentor, at the end of the week after seeing his own patients.
• The Sopranos: Dr. Jennifer Melfi is shown to be seeing a therapist due to her guilt over losing a patient to suicide because of Tony Soprano telling her to go on the lam.
• Ted Lasso: Dr. Sharon Fieldstone consults with a professional colleague over the phone about her frustrations with Ted, in particular his tendency to deflect when pressed.
• 30 Rock: Played with in that none of the characters are practicing psychiatrists. Jack advises Liz to see a therapist and she goes to Kenneth, a page, and talks to him about her problem with trusting men. She assumes Kenneth will be fine dealing with her emotional baggage, only for it to invoke some of his own repressed traumas. Jack volunteers to be Kenneth's therapist, as he believes he can crush the issues in his 'mind vice'. This in turn unearths Jack's Daddy Issues.
• Frasier: The titular character spends an episode on another psychiatrist's couch unloading the problems he faces at work and at home. In the end, it's revealed that the session is Frasier's annual licensing check up and he and the psychiatrist swap places so that the other doctor can get his own out of the way.
• Elementary: While not a licensed therapist herself Joan Watson's work as a Sober Companion has a counselling element to it as she helps people through their recovery. During the first season she's occasionally seen checking in with a therapist of her own who expresses concern about some of the dangerous situations her work with Sherlock Holmes has put her in.

Webcomics

• Discussed in El Goonish Shive: When the subject comes up of Grace possibly choosing this career, Grace mentions that if she became a therapist, she would probably need to see one herself, which she's leery of, for some reason.
• Level 30 Psychiatry: Dr. Gardevoir, being the only qualified Psychiatrist in a world of video game characters, attempts to give herself therapy but in doing so manifests a split personality glasses-wearing version of herself who shows up at inopportune times to try and help her work through her problems.

Web Videos

• Played for Laughs in the Scott The Woz mini-series "The Dark Age of Nintendo":
  • In the first installment, reviewing Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival, Scott's therapist assures Scott he knows what it's like to go to therapy, as he does it twice a week. Scott asks where a therapist goes to therapy, and his therapist says, "The mirror." This becomes a Brick Joke later when the therapist screams into his mirror about how annoyed he is with Scott.
  • The second installment, reviewing Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, opens with the therapist giving himself a pep talk in front of his mirror.
  • In the final installment, reviewing Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash, Scott's therapist is forced to get therapy from Scott, who had decided to repress everything after playing the game and become a therapist, because his mirror is in the shop.

Western Animation

• Animaniacs: In the first episode, Warner Bros. Studios' psychiatrist Dr. Scratchansniff recounts to another psychiatrist on his first meeting and sessions with the Warner siblings, whom he was put on duty to "de-zanitize". They instead drove him crazy, hence Scratchansniff needing to see a therapist.
• Looney Tunes: Played for laughs in the short Punch Trunk, where a therapist is listening to a patient and taking notes, before the five-inch elephant that is the star of the short wanders onto his desk, and drinks his water. The therapist then assumes he's going a bit bonkers, and promptly swaps places with the patient, placing himself on his Freudian Couch and talking about his life in the same manner as the patient was before then.
• The Simpsons: In the episode "Yokel Chords", Bart traumatizes the students of Springfield Elementary (and some staff members, including the school therapist) with a story about a murderous cafeteria cook, Dark Stanley. He is sent to see a professional therapist as a result, and they connected easily. After Bart's final therapy session, his therapist began to miss and obsess over him and talks about this to her own therapist, who theorizes she sees Bart as a replacement for her own son, who was murdered by Dark Stanley.
• South Park: Discussed in the episode "PC Principal: Final Justice". Mr. Mackey is revealed to be the one who got Principal Victoria fired because he was tired of always being bossed around by her. When asked why he didn't just talk to her about it, he claims that it's because nobody ever listens and that everyone just expects him to listen to their problems, to which Gerald professes that maybe they all should have realized that sometimes even a counselor needs counseling.

Real Life

• One of the requirements for a would-be psychoanalyst is to have undergone a psychoanalytic cure themselves, called "training analysis." Even if a psychology program doesn't mandate this, it is highly encouraged that students regularly attend therapy themselves in order to better process the emotions they'll go through while helping others with their issues, and are urged to continue doing so if possible once they're actively working in the field.
• Religious equivalent: priests also have to undergo the sacrament of penance, and they cannot do it themselves. Even The Pope has his own confessor.

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