Two Psych Doctors Spill the Tea on Mental Health Concepts & Presentations Shown in your Fave RealiTV Shows!
Ever find yourself wanting to debrief that reality tv episode with your therapist? Or maybe you've wanted to ask them questions about something you've learned from the reality tv interactions, castmates, or news cycle?
Come debrief with two female licensed psychologists as they illuminate & explore what we can all learn about ourselves, our relationships, and our society from our fave reality television shows on Netflix, Peacock, Bachelor Nation, Bravo, and beyond! Dr.s Kay & Ray hope to inspire further discussion about psychological and sociopolitical aspects of reality TV, offering rough draft thoughts and ideas for us all to continue thinking about, while highlighting the power dynamics, sociohistorical context, and intersecting forms of oppression, marginalization, and privilege that are present. After all, reality television ultimately provides an engaging format for learning about our behavior, mental health, and sociopolitical systems—let’s learn together!
Why REALITY TEST? We ALL reality test when testing a given thought, emotion, or interaction against "objective"* (or shared) reality--did I see that right? Was that really sexist? Dr.s Kay & Ray spill all the tea on how the producer antics and castmate claims about mental health stack up against "objective" reality off-screen and the field of clinical psychology that they have learned about as practicing psychotherapists and research psychologists.
What are you talking ABOUT? Reality Test has a general focus on relationships, social privilege, and mental health. Dr.s Kay & Ray also acknowledge their sociopolitical identities and lenses through which they view reality television, as feminist, bi+, white allies. So, if you've been itching to discuss how that episode was brimming with misogyny, heterosexism, &/or white privilege (from a white, ever-dedicated-to-developing-their-antiracism, perspective), or to critically assess how the producers portrayed a given scenario or interaction, while celebrating the hope & empowerment that can be found, you've come to the right place!
DISCLAIMER: In the context of this podcast, Dr.s Kay & Ray are not acting as therapists, neither for you nor for the reality castmates they discuss. They are, instead, bringing in their whole human selves, supplemented by mental health and psychology knowledge. They cannot ethically diagnose castmates or speak with certainty about their dynamics without conducting formal psychological assessments. Thus, their opinions will be merely (easily erroneous) opinions, informed by their biased perspectives, and while they may discuss diagnoses, they will avoid assigning them to castmates.
CO-HOSTS' NOTE: We've spent many years developing our professional roles (as psychotherapists, professors, supervisors, and consultants), but we are new to podcasting--as you'll notice! So, thank you in advance for your patience and feedback :) This will be an imperfect, but growth-fostering process, and we appreciate your engagement with it and with us! Thanks, y’all. <3
* "Objective" is in quotes to indicate the co-hosts' shared belief in social constructionism, and the idea that there may never be a way to assess a truly objective reality, because we all live our own realities that we co-construct in the context of relationships--informed by our own biased memories & subjectivities--and that color our examination of an "objective" reality.