En thérapie - Season 2

Philippe Dayan has a meeting with Inès, a brilliant lawyer in her forties, who is investigating a case of non-assistance to a person in danger involving the psychoanalyst. She unceremoniously prepares the latter for the ordeal of the appearance that awaits him, not without having taken care to remind him that she was briefly his patient around twenty years earlier. Dayan then discovers with astonishment the reasons which push the young woman to wish to come and consult him again…

The psychoanalyst welcomes Robin, son of Léonora and Damien (Clémence Poésy and Pio Marmaï), former patients he received as part of couples therapy. Aged eleven, the boy seems unaware of what brings him to the couch, and dreams of an "invisibility cloak". He refuses to spend time at his father's house for fear of Covid. Dayan ingeniously works to uncover the unspoken family secrets that weigh on his young patient, whose liveliness and sensitivity he discovers.

A final-year architecture student, Lydia, aged twenty-two, talks about a bad experience with a previous therapist. Dayan guides his patient to try to understand this failure. At the end of the session, Lydia reveals the real reason for her visit: devastating news about her health. She hasn't told anyone and refuses to seek treatment...

Alain, a hyperactive septuagenarian and head of a large company, has been caught up in a media storm since the suicide of one of his employees, who was a victim of overwork during the lockdown. He expects Dayan to give him “communication advice”. The therapist firmly refuses and tries to direct his patient towards in-depth analytical work.

On the advice of his lawyer, Dayan consults Claire Brunet, a renowned psychoanalyst, author of a recent highly publicized essay. Weakened and tense by the ongoing legal proceedings, he wants to question his practice. Claire immediately questions her patient's motivations, mentions an analysis rather than supervision. At the end of an intense session, Dayan comes across Rebecca, whom he has not seen for years. He is all the more troubled when he discovers that she is also in analysis with Claire.

Inès has chosen to abandon Dayan's defense in order to resume therapy with her former analyst. She has just had a fertility assessment, which shows that her chances of getting pregnant are declining. During their first exchanges, the therapist's supposed responsibility for the decision she made to have an abortion, twenty-three years earlier, emerges.

Encouraged by Dayan's caring support, Léonora and Damien finally find the words to answer their son's questions. Upset, Robin learns of their intention to divorce. Alone again with his therapist, the young boy painfully confides the mockery of his school friends, linked to his excess weight.

Since Lydia announced her illness to Antoine, her ex-boyfriend, he has been present and attentive. But the young woman refuses this help, which she experiences as an intrusion. Dayan discovers the depth of her denial and strongly encourages her to start treatment.

Overwhelmed by his professional worries, Alain is also worried about the safety of his daughter who has gone to offer her help in a migrant camp in Greece. Marked by two bereavements, the business leader is subject to frequent anxiety attacks.

Dayan's trial date is approaching. His anxiety is evident. He discusses with Claire his chance meeting with Rebecca the previous week. It's an opportunity for him to revisit his teenage loves and the trauma caused by his mother's suicide.

Inès is very disturbed by this sudden reversal of the situation. She fears more than anything the reaction of her parents. Dayan makes her measure the place she gives to family judgments, and tries to put her on the path of her own desire…

Robin had a great weekend at his father's, but the presence of his father's new girlfriend upsets him. Should he tell his mother? Dayan tries to calm the conflict of loyalty that he senses emerging in his young patient. Robin then reveals what is bothering him even more deeply in the family secrets and the relationships between his two parents.

With the architectural model she spent the night on in her arms, Lydia arrives exhausted at Dayan's. The session is tense. Lydia summons a childhood trauma by the sea, which Dayan seizes upon to make his patient observe her obsession with control. He urges her to announce her illness to her parents...

Worried because he had not heard from his daughter for several days, Alain went to Greece to join her, fleeing the media harassment he was subjected to. Surprised and angry, the young woman had a hard time dealing with her father's interventionism. Dayan tries to make his patient understand what is behind this confrontation and his repeated panic attacks.

Dayan goes to court. It is the day of the hearing in the Chibane case, which has been pursuing the analyst for five years. He answers questions from the presiding judge, then from the ruthless lawyer for the civil parties. But refuses, in the name of medical confidentiality, to discuss the content of the last session with his late patient. An unexpected witness appears at the bar…

Since she officially started living with her boyfriend, Inès feels oppressed. Dayan invites her to revisit her family history.

Leonora thanks Dayan for Robin's dazzling behavioral progress. A change too rapid not to be seriously questioned by the analyst.

Lydia still hasn't told her family about her illness. She's visibly exhausted, but she's getting ready to go to her parents' house to take care of her autistic little brother.

Lydia still hasn't told her family about her illness. She's visibly exhausted, but she's getting ready to go to her parents' house to take care of her autistic little brother.

Dayan has just learned that his father is in intensive care, suffering from Covid. He hasn't seen him for two years and clearly has no intention of visiting him.

Simon has left Inès. Upset, she makes major revelations to Dayan about the circumstances of her birth. She discovered that her mother left without her for Mali when she was only a few weeks old. She was taken care of by her grandmother during her first year of life…

Robin arrives at Dayan's two hours early. An acute situation of harassment has forced him to run away from his school. Warned by the school, unaware of the circumstances of the child's escape, his father arrives at the office furious. Dayan gets the conversation going between father and son, points out mirror effects between them and allows for calming.

Lydia is relieved. She has completed her first chemotherapy and is ready to continue treatment. An opportunity for Dayan to make his patient realize how difficult it is for her to ask anyone for help. He suggests that she get someone to accompany her during her next hospital stay.

Convinced that he has Covid, Alain consults Dayan by videoconference. Worried about him since his dismissal, his daughter is back for a while. Unable to rejoice, Alain is convinced that his daughter and his wife are plotting behind his back. He seems to be slipping into paranoia. At the end of the session, Dayan welcomes Rebecca, his former love, into his home. The latter lifts the veil on a crucial dimension of the psychoanalyst's past.

Rebecca's revelations have upset Dayan, who is still very overwhelmed by his father's disappearance. Claire invites her patient to rewrite the scenario on which he has built his vision of his childhood and adolescence based on these new elements. His father probably cared much more about him than he has imagined for decades.

The previous week, Inès, then in the midst of solitary distress, received an impromptu and totally unusual visit from her mother. An opportunity for the two women to engage in an essential conversation about the circumstances of the birth of the family's eldest daughter. A step forward in the analysis of his patient that Dayan is delighted with.

A week after confiding in his parents thanks to Dayan, Robin announces to his therapist's surprise that he has filed a complaint against his harassers. However, this only provides him with short-lived relief, as a new conflict has broken out between his father and mother, putting the young boy in front of an impossible choice.

Upon arrival at the session, Lydia accuses Dayan of treason: following a serious illness that sent her to the emergency room, the psychoanalyst felt the need to warn her mother. Over the course of their discussions, Lydia comes to recognize the importance of her parents' support; while Dayan emphasizes the recurring pattern that his patient seems to have displayed in her relationships with others since childhood: a difficulty in asking for help.

After contacting Dayan herself, Anouk, Alain's daughter, accompanies him for an emergency session. Seriously concerned about her father's condition, who is increasingly agitated and confused, the young woman has had to postpone her return to Greece to stay by his side. In full denial, Alain will lose his footing before the eyes of his daughter and his shrink. The latter then recommends a radical measure.

The verdict in the trial against Dayan has been delivered: an acquittal that puts an end to four painful years of proceedings. In front of Claire, the psychoanalyst evokes a need to turn the page. Crossed by serious doubts about the usefulness of his practice, he considers stopping his consultations. While she questions her eternal need to act as a savior, Dayan takes back the reins of the exchange and brings his colleague to confide in her turn.

Barely recovered from a painful phantom pregnancy, Inès decided to embark on a PMA course – which does not prevent her from questioning the reality of her desire for a child. The interpretation of a highly significant dream brings back forgotten childhood memories, and helps the young woman to put together a new piece of the puzzle of her family history.

Robin is at peace. He has gotten rid of some of his feelings of guilt, which Dayan hails as considerable progress. While his parents have managed to come to an agreement, the prospect of following his mother to Brussels arouses a lot of apprehension in him. Faced with the major changes awaiting his young patient, the psychoanalyst finds an original way to begin the transition.

Lydia arrives late for her appointment, tired and on edge. But her relief is palpable: her chemotherapy is giving encouraging results. The young woman must now take ownership of the profound changes that this ordeal imposes on her, particularly in her relationship with those close to her. In an emotional exchange with her therapist, Lydia measures the path he has made her travel…

While he was supposed to be at the hospital, Alain surprises Dayan by ringing his doorbell at the usual time. He has decided to cut his stay at Saint-Anne short: he doubts the competence of the doctors and believes he is well enough to stop therapy completely. The businessman nevertheless recognizes the astonishing powers of listening… Through his questions, the psychoanalyst invites him to embrace a part of himself that has been repressed for too long.

After thinking long and hard about whether or not to continue his practice, Dayan has made his decision. His session with Claire, fueled by mutual listening, is an opportunity to draw parallels between their respective journeys – whether personal, family or romantic. To the point, perhaps and ultimately, of changing his resolutions…