In the therapy room

In the therapy room

Experience the emotional and inspiring tales of recovery as psychotherapist Susie Orbach opens up the inner workings of the therapy room. Across dramatised sessions with fictional clients like Harriet, John, Helen, Richard and Louise, you’ll hear how everyday struggles with relationships, self-worth and fear play out in the consulting chair. The episode centres on Susie’s 40 years in psychoanalytic practice and her clear, down-to-earth way of explaining what therapy actually does.

She describes a modern psychoanalyst as someone "interested in understanding what gets in the way of the person" and helping them "get curious about their behaviours and their feelings" so they can become more like the person they imagine themselves to be. You’ll hear tense but tender exchanges between Richard and Louise as they face the prospect of parenthood, revealing Richard’s terror of becoming a father after growing up with "a void" where his dad’s name should have been.

Susie uses this to show how projection and transference shape how people see their partners, and how therapy gently unpacks those patterns. There’s also a powerful story of a woman who arrived as a "battered wife" and, over many years, came to feel she had "a very, very rich life and free of any attack", building deep friendships and a role in her community.

Susie links these kinds of changes to a therapist’s capacity for "empathic identification"—taking on a tiny flavour of a client’s pain to better understand it. Host Lynne Malcolm guides the conversation as Susie talks about women’s fears of being "found out" as frauds, the pressure to be endlessly tough and independent, and the growing hunger for real, face-to-face connection in an online age.

If you’ve ever wondered what really happens in therapy, or what makes long-term talking work worth the time, this candid look inside the consulting room might leave you asking: what feelings and stories are you ready to bring into the open?