Taking TV cameras into a therapist’s office presents problems, not least the ethics of filming an individual’s deeply private trauma-mining. But in Change Your Mind, Change Your Life, celebrity couple Matt Willis (of Busted fame) and his TV presenter wife Emma do exactly that, accompanying some brave souls willing to take their first steps into psychotherapy.
The two don’t actually sit there next to them, eating popcorn. But they frame the therapy segments, hinting at their own experiences and catching up with the participants afterwards to ask them how it’s going. It could be clunky or prurient, but their presence provides reassuring on-screen empathy and support for the people we’re following.
Their qualification to front this format comes from Matt’s openness about his own issues with drug and alcohol dependence – as seen in the BBC documentary, Matt Willis: Fighting Addiction, in 2023 – and Emma’s interviews about the impact it’s had on their marriage. Their presence here is as kindly mum and dad, on hand for a cuppa and a chat.
Matt Willis with Muna, who was bullied as a child (Photo: BBC/Twenty Twenty Productions Ltd)According to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, around a third of British adults seek some kind of talking therapy during their lives. And I have no doubt that someone going through their own troubles, on seeing this show, might be encouraged to seek help for themselves. You can’t fault the public service remit at work here.
“Life happens to everyone,” says one of the show’s resident psychotherapists, Owen O’Kane, on why everyone should spend some time in therapy. His first patient is Nicole who suffers from what she describes as driving anxiety.
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Within minutes, Owen has asked a couple of well-placed questions that reveal there’s something deeper going on underneath. “I’m shocked that he got my number straight away,” she says.
Meanwhile finance worker James has come to see psychiatrist Professor Steve Peters who specialises in working with athletes. James’ sporting career was cut short when he suffered a stroke. He’s subsequently suffered anxiety that sometimes stops him going to work. As he progresses through his sessions, it becomes apparent that James’ anxiety has its roots in his relationship with his dad.
Another participant, Muna, suffered serious bullying in childhood when her classmates found out she was adopted. As an adult, it’s left her scared to be alone in the house, which is problematic as her teenager prepares to leave for university. Psychotherapist Fatoumata Jatta begins the careful work of unpicking her early experiences of being ostracised by her peers.
Nicole spoke with therapist Owen O’Kane about her driving anxiety (Photo: BBC/Twenty Twenty Productions Ltd)We meet all of our participants on day one of therapy, but it’s unclear if what we’re seeing is their actual therapy or a filmed segment of something more constructed. It certainly feels real.
And I can’t imagine how difficult it was to edit. The essence of the therapy room remains intact while the specific details of past trauma are kept to a minimum. The overall effect is a surface impression of the contributors’ inner lives, but it’s enough to tell the story.
Done well – and I think it is – a series like this could conceivably help people who assume therapy isn’t for them. But it doesn’t tackle the fact that therapy is financially out of reach for so many or that NHS-provision is woefully insufficient and can only be accessed after years on a waiting list.
Still, Change Your Mind, Change Your Life succeeds in demonstrating that the stories we tell ourselves might be covering a very different narrative underneath – you think your problems are down to one thing, but when you probe deeper something else may be the cause.
And the overwhelmingly positive take away is summed up best by O’Kane: “You’re not stuck with the brain that you’ve got.”
‘Change Your Mind, Change Your Life with Matt and Emma Willis’ continues next Tuesday at 10.40pm on BBC One
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