If it's crushingly bleak at times, that's only because it's realistic, IMO. Sure there are times when someone has a temporary case of post partum depression and goes to a therapist, works it out, and goes on about life greeted by weekly rainbows. But a significant number of people who need therapy are never what the public at large would define as mentally healthy. I know a person who has been going to therapy for years (with what I think is a good therapist) who has developed all kinds of life coping skills, but she still said to me recently that she's tired of living and wishes should could just die. Crushingly bleak? Maybe. But the truth is, it's often extermely difficult to adjust the internal things within a person that gets the person to that place in the first place.
Does marriage counseling fix marriages, delay the inevitable, or keep people in unhappy marriages with little or no trust left? Does therapy help suicidal patients succeed in living happy lives, or just prolonging their miserable lives? Is a person who is in functional denial better off when he lets everything he has buried to the surface so that it can be discussed? What happens to that person during the time it takes to come to terms with whatever is buried?
Granted, I find psychology fascinating. But that said, I think this show does an excellent job covering the topic in an entertaining way.
