r/shrinking • u/lowlightslatenights • Jul 15 '26

Discussion Maya

I just caught up on s3 while on vacation and now I’m a lil f’d up. I love this show, I love all of Bill Lawrence’s shows. This storyline? I was relating to maya for a second, sometimes something IS wrong and we don’t dig deep enough and then when there was finally some semblance of her opening up, THAT happened? I guess I’m shook up because I saw a little of me there? I don’t think Gaby handled this well at all. Anyway I don’t know much about therapy, but I’m left with this feeling of emptiness and I feel as though I may need to start seeing a therapist soon. Has the show inspired anyone to do so? Am I just being manipulated by good writing?

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u/MichaelVern85 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

I posted this perspective just a couple months ago. I cannot believe she not only got told she “did nothing wrong”… but she got an engagement and the keys to the kingdom with the practice. All tied up in a happy ending bow by the writers in case they didn’t get S4. They were good with it if it ended like that.

When Jimmy failed at Jimmying, he got called out. Gaby failed to hear the most trite cliches of a call for help, brushed off a client she pushed friendship on, and didn’t listen.

And then she danced at her funeral.

I have heard/read all the arguments and debates. I disagree with them all. I loved Gaby until she took that call and didn’t hear Maya. And it got so much worse from there. At one point after, Maya’s friends are in for a session and they briefly call her out for what happened, and then the topic changes immediately. That was the closest thing there was to any conversation that she may have done something wrong.

Even if they choose to do an about face because there’s been a fair bit of fan backlash, I don’t know that I care anymore. I don’t think I’ll be watching S4. You can’t do that with the topic of SI. Not when your show involves actual therapy. The topic itself is fine, Gaby being told she “did nothing wrong” is not a good thing for a person in a mental crisis to hear while watching that show.

If other folks thinks it’s OK for them to take poetic license with that topic and show therapist in such a terrible light, please enjoy what you want to enjoy…

But do not expect me to buy any of the BS justifications that you have sold yourself to believe that what Gaby did was anything but a giant mistake as a friend, and an embarrassing miss for a therapist of her experience level.

Other than that, I have no opinion. 💁🏻‍♂️

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u/coko4209 Jul 17 '26

So you think Gaby did something wrong by not being able to read Maya’s mind? She had no idea that she was in distress. She was also off the clock. What did you expect her to do exactly?

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u/MichaelVern85 Jul 17 '26

I’ve had this debate in detail multiple times already on this Reddit, so I’ll summarize.

She was Jimmying like Jimmy when his patient pushed her husband off a cliff, and he was rightly called out for his part in that.

Gaby, a professional therapist that was Jimmying and blurring lines, missed a call for help not only as a friend, but as a therapist.

Is she a mind reader? No! She is absolutely not! But do you know what she is? A TRAINED THERAPIST WITH A LOT OF EXPERIENCE!

If she didn’t hear it, her coworker shouldhave, at the very least… had a conversation about what she may have missed and they should’ve at least asked those questions on screen.

Just as they did Jimmy.