As a therapist and someone who lost 3 family members last month, I believe #TedLasso is not only doing incredible things in tv as art, but is also an example of how media can help the world heal from grief: a thread (spoilers ahead)
1) I think grief is the most fundamental emotion we experience as a human race. I believe it is at the core of all of the uncomfortable emotions we feel. It’s also the most nuanced and complex because it is so visceral and painful.
2) Which is part of why our first response is escape (also why I’ve done an embarrassingly deep dive into @brettgoldstein work and why I regularly imagine I’m on his podcast. His work is great! You should check it out! but I digress). Ted lasso first offers us escape.
3) But it’s not just escape that’s numbing, it’s escape that’s joyful. The feelings season 1 gives us literally chemically soothes our nervous system into feelings of safety. This response is not something we experience in our logical brain, but in our bodies.
4) As a result My nervous system is primed to see these characters and their interactions and automatically enter a place of safety. So while I am at a place of safety that I normally don’t experience, I am also observing.
5) Most mammals learn from safety and observation, which is why observing healthy, safe relationships unfold is so important. Not only bc it allows us to understand on a deeper level how to build them ourselves but also bc we personally feel like we are a part of this community.
6) This community experience is important bc our brains resolve emotion in a gentler and quicker manner when it is shared vulnerably with another trusted person or persons. We NEED these relationships. Which leads me to therapy -
6) This community experience is important bc our brains resolve emotion in a gentler and quicker manner when it is shared vulnerably with another trusted person or persons. We NEED these relationships. Which leads me to therapy -
7) #TedLasso shows us not only that therapists are people who get annoyed at their clients and need their own therapists (😬) but also that the healing in therapy comes fundamentally from the RELATIONSHIP. Therapy offers many other things but this is the core.
8) I can’t stress enough the significance of the bodily experience we are having while watching. We’re not just observing, we’re JOINING. I’m not just learning that grief is messy and normal and that we need people. Im literally grieving alongside.
9) Im crying WITH Ted as he discloses his pain to Dr. Sharon. Im singing WITH Rebecca during the eulogy as she finds words from the deepest parts of herself to navigate this complex experience. Im safe enough, and seen enough, to heal too.
10) Ted lasso not only gives us hope for the world, but helps heal it. The world, as a collective, has many things to grieve and process. We’re hurting, and coping (however poorly) and surviving. But for a moment, we can see how we heal each other.
11) So thank you @VDOOZER @jasonsudeikis @brendanhunting @TedLasso and all the cast and writers for this show. It deserves all its awards for excellence in television by all means. But it is also a beautiful picture about how art helps us heal. I know it’s helped me ❤️❤️
P.s. never been so happy to be Rick rolled in my entire life 😜
Also, because I was informed of a missed opportunity… thank you for coming to my Ted talk 😘
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