In Treatment: Sophie – Week Eight
By fred | March 24, 2008
(S01E38) So last week I missed the Wednesday’s session of In Treatment, and I did miss Sophie. After a while I did pretty much dropped the Thursdays and Fridays sessions, which I didn’t like that much (although I always managed to find time to keep an eye on it) only to keep the three first days of the week. And to be honest, the Wednesdays sessions have always been my favorite, and I believe the best ones of the bunch.
Sophie is a great character, Paul who I find to be a somewhat shitty therapist most of the times is actually real good with her, the two of them share a pretty good & interesting relationship, and both Gabriel Byrne and Mia Wasikowska are delivering quite impressive performances, and do work very well together.
So I was bumped out to have missed Sophie’s appointment last week, but thank God it was repeated over the week-end and I just got to (finally!) see the episode.
And once again I have to repeat how I love those sessions, I really think those are hands down the best ones of the bunch. This week after a little introduction we started we a Sophie in tears, lying on the floor in Paul’s office, and he too was on the floor as well. And this is something that was present, always, with her. Sophie has clearly been lacking a safe place in her life, a place to call home, to feel safe, and to be loved.
And Paul never failed to make sure she could find such a peaceful environment when she came here, in therapy. He always took good care to make sure he never treated her as a child, and that she would feel safe here, that it could be an alternative to the beam for her to feel secure. The only time he sat next to a patient was with Laura, a few weeks back. But it was special, because it was Laura, of course, and because it was meant to mean that there was no therapist/patient relationship, as it was after she had quit. Then, they were just friends.
This time, when Sophie got on the couch and Paul sat next to her, it wasn’t the same (thank God!) but it was another of his move to show her that he really cared about her, and that they were friends and could trust and rely on one another. Paul knows she is in need for such an environment and that’s why he acts as such, because he knows that it is those little things, like telling Sophie he would be honored to have her read him a part of her diary, that will create this relationship of trust and respect, and that will have Sophie to listen to what he says, and call him if she needs help.
Weeks ago I said that Sophie used to go from one place to another, from being happy & smiling to really angry and crying. Of course she’s in a better state now, the therapy is working and this is of the past. Yet, as a reminiscence of their first encounter, it almost felt like Sophie put Paul to another test this week, when she showed him her rash.
I’m not sure why she would be trying to test him so far, maybe though she didn’t actually intend to do so and – having the problems that she has with her own body image – didn’t think Paul would be “shocked”. Although I tend to think she’s smarter than that.
I have said that I thought Paul was a rather shitty therapist the rest of the week, and plenty of times Alex used to joke about how Paul never really answered any questions but by asking another question. (His father did too as well I believe.) And in the end, when Alex let Paul know what his intention were, Paul didn’t do anything to stop him. I’m not saying Paul should have known Alex would kill himself or that it’s his fault, but it was one of the many occasions when Paul didn’t do anything. Previously Alex used to say it helped him somehow, and I never really got that.
But again, with Sophie the case is different, and Paul does tell her stories or answers her questions. With her he really is a good therapist, and he seems to do about everything that he should do just right, just like he passed all of her tests. This time when Sophie told him to stop pushing her, that she could tell he was wanting her to have a breakthrough moment, Paul went another way.
He asked her something else completely, ans used her answer to tell her how (most) people work, and how it could apply to her situation. Not only did he kind of gave her the answer that she could repeat, but he made sure to do so using her own statement to base this “interpretation” of things. This was a really good move, because she didn’t have to repeat anything then, as Paul was only rephrasing what Sophie had said before, he was actually repeating what she said, only in a more specific way to her own situation.
And because when things are good, Paul actually is a good therapist, he pretty nailed it and as Sophie read her diary it was obvious that Paul had figured out perfectly how things actually went down for Sophie, how she hated to be in the situation her father put her into, and how she wanted to tell her mother, but couldn’t afford to “betraying” her father, she needed her mother to ask her first. Which may be why she got angry at her mother, too, because she never found her diary, read it and asked Sophie what it was about…
Finally Sophie was able to “adjust” her anger, and let herself fully be mad at her father, not her mother. She could start her healing process, and that could start right after she blew goodbye a little kiss to Paul, and agreed to go take a coffee with her mother. A mother, who had always been there for her, trying to help her, but never could reach her own daughter, a mother who could never actually talk with her daughter, because until now she wouldn’t let her.
But now, Sophie is in a very different place, therapy is already showing the first things, and that can only be a good thing. In fact, I’m almost thinking that should there be a second season, they could even do it without Sophie, or at least not for the entire season, with is both good, for Sophie, but also not so good, because we would really miss her, wouldn’t we ?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: In Treatment
