How Apple TV+'s 'Shrinking' tackles compassion fatigue, therapy, and grief

Shrinking, the brainchild of Ted Lasso creator Bill Lawrence and writer Brett Goldstein, is a charming dramedy so far, shedding light on darker themes in an offbeat, familial sort of way. Starring Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, and Jessica Williams, the Apple TV+ series sees Jimmy (Segel) grappling with grief after his wife's death, ironically against the backdrop of his profession: a psychotherapist, practicing the art of helping others daily.

This premise lends itself naturally to the greater questions of the show. How does someone grieving — in mostly unhealthy, hedonistic ways — offer guidance to others? What happens when your personal life often puts you in conflict with your professional foundation?

There are many possibilities to these questions, which Shrinking has already explored in the first four parts of its pending 10-episode run. In the first episode "Coin Flip", the emotional undercurrents of Jimmy's home life seep into the office, leading to a vital discussion around compassion fatigue, or the the psychological and physical impact of helping others.

After a night of liquor and pills with women whose names he can't recall (all while his daughter attempts to sleep in their house), Jimmy finds himself hungover, bleary-eyed, and late to work. He sits with his long-standing patients, one after the other, halfheartedly responding to their life's woes. Eventually, he erupts at a wide-eyed patient with an emotionally abusive husband: a fountain of criticism – "He's not that great," "He's a fugly man, inside and out," – trickles down to the grand finale, "Just fucking leave him."

The encounter leaves him nervously confessing to his colleagues Gaby (Williams) and Paul (Ford), the latter of whom states simply, "Compassion fatigue. We all hit those walls."

What Paul, as the more seasoned therapist, touches upon is a phenomenon that has long existed for caregivers of any sort. As I wrote for Mashable, compassion fatigue is the set of consequences that stems from supporting others. Symptoms can resemble that of burnout, such as exhaustion in relation to work demands, and other reactions like reduced empathy and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Many therapists, some of whom I spoke to, have faced this unique condition during their careers.

The conversation around this is an important one, with distinctions to be made. Lynne Hughes, founder of bereavement camp Comfort Zone, told me, "Suffering from compassion fatigue does not mean you’re bad at helping or caring, it only means the scale between caring for others and caring for yourself is no longer balanced."

Jimmy is a prime example of what compassion fatigue may look like, as the episode spells out. The emotional explosion towards his client exhibits a blatant lack of boundaries and language most would deem unprofessional; yet, his behavior in the session doesn't reflect a lack of caring. His own lack of compassion for himself, in the wake of an unimaginable loss, has consequences he couldn't have predicted. This infiltrates his workspace after what we can assume is a considerable build-up.

Shrinking is attempting to pull back the curtain on the challenges of caregiving, in an earnest (though occasionally compressed) fashion. This has so far applied not only to Jimmy, but to his fellow psychotherapists (one undergoing a divorce, the other diagnosed with Parkinson's disease), and even to his neighbor Liz (Christa Miller), who adopts a maternal approach to Jimmy's daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell).

As Ford's character, tells Alice in episode 2, "Nobody gets through this life unscathed. But then you're left with a choice." The message, ultimately, appears to be compassion itself: for yourself, for your loved ones, for those around you. That's a choice, too, and one that Shrinking is proposing with the help of its wondrously human characters.

Shrinking is now streaming on Apple TV+.