Los Angeles mental health professionals and services

L.A. Shrinks

The television program L.A. Shrinks is a reality show airing on Bravo which deals with three psychotherapists who work in Los Angeles, California. The three therapists who are featured are Dr. Venus Nicolino, Dr. Gregory Carson, and Dr. Eris Huemer. During the program, the home lives of each doctor are explored as is the family that they go home to each and every day. Although the premise of the show is interesting, that psychiatrists and psychologists are human beings too and that they exist in a world beyond the chair and the office in which they listen to patients, the show does not do credit to the profession, but rather serves to mock it.

The psychiatrists on the whole are all portrayed as decent human beings although this is debatable. They want to help their patients and also to live fully and happily in their personal lives. However, the fact that they work exclusively in Los Angeles adds a bit of narcissism to the interactions which may not be present if the show were located elsewhere. One of the doctors, for example, lives in Beverly Hills. None of the three doctors seems to be suffering financially for their profession, indicating that they treat only individuals with deep enough pockets to pay their hourly fees. This intentionally or unintentionally shows a mercenarily aspect to being a therapist; people may want to help others but at least in the case of these three shrinks, they are also not adverse to receiving a healthy sized paycheck for their work with patients.

The intention of the program is to humanize therapists and those in the mental health field, but there is a problem in this. In order for the patient to receive adequate care, they need to maintain an attitude of professionalism and personal stability. When watching the show, the shrinks have at times such hectic lives that they themselves seem to be struggling psychologically to deal with everything. Everyone has issues and this is understood even by patients, but the level of mania shown in some of the interactions between the psychiatrists and their family members makes one question whether or not they really are equipped to do their jobs well.

What is particularly troublesome about this program is that many actual sessions are shown between the three doctors and their patients. Of course, the patients would have to give their permission to appear on television but this just seems wrong. One of the basic tenets between doctors and patients, particularly in psychological medicine, is the confidentiality and trust that exists. People go to therapy because they have psychological issues, sometime which are very serious, that must be dealt with. They go to a "shrink" because they know they will be heard and perhaps treated, but they know that it is a safe environment wherein only they and the doctor reside. To bring cameras into what should be a private and intimate situation is to violate the very foundations of intimacy and trust which need to develop in order for a patient to get well.