Characters / In Treatment

Season 1-3 Characters

Therapists

Dr. Paul Weston

Portrayed By: Gabriel Byrne

A Baltimore (later Brooklyn in Season 2-3)-based psychotherapist, and the central protagonist of the first three seasons of the show. A graduate of Georgetown University, Columbia, and The New School, Paul is a veteran therapist who has been in practice for two decades at the start of the show. However, despite his professional success, his family life is quickly crumbling around him, and he's becoming paradoxically tired of dealing with other people's problems AND too invested in the lives of his patients. At the start of the series, he seeks out his former mentor, Gina, in order to help him deal with some of these issues.

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• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Paul is a very loving father, but in the past decade has emotionally retreated from his family life, which has caused multiple problems for his children's mental health.
• Dramatic Irony: The key times he doesn't tell his therapists what is actually happening in his life, which become the elephant in the room during those sessions.
• Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Played with. He is the one who ultimately makes the decision (telling Kate to her face that he's going to see Laura) that ends their marriage. However, he does make half-hearted attempt to come back to the family, which she rejects due to emotional exhaustion.
• I Am Not My Father: He despises his father for divorcing his mother and marrying a patient, as well as leaving him to take care of his mother and her worsening bipolar disorder. Gina has to remind him several times that his burgeoning relationship with Laura is mirroring his father's patterns, which he is not happy about.
• I Did What I Had to Do: He occasionally crosses boundaries with his patients, like badgering April into finally accepting chemotherapy and accompanying her to her first treatment to make sure he goes. He understands that he crossed a line, but his recent experience with Alex makes him determined to not let her commit suicide by inaction. It works, but he makes it clear he cannot continue going to treatments with her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Paul can be very cruel to Gina when in therapy with her, and his aloofness and coldness to his family has led to his estrangement. But he really does love his family and values Gina's expertise.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In season 2, he comes to view Alex's death as a suicide, and blames himself for not taking the opportunity to keep Alex from flying.
• Rage Breaking Point: Paul usually has a very long fuse, but Alex invading his personal life by having his family investigated (and then intentionally provoking him by mocking his children's issues) causes him to snap and throw hot coffee in Alex's face while loudly threatening him.

Dr. Gina Toll

Portrayed By: Dianne Wiest

A seasoned psychologist, widower, and former professional mentor of Paul. She was originally estranged from Paul for nine years, following a letter-of-recommendation she wrote him Paul that he perceived as harsh and unfounded. However, Paul begins the series seeking her out as an act of desperation after feeling he cannot talk about his own issues with anyone in his own life.

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Dr. Adele Brouse

Portrayed By: Amy Ryan

A relatively young psychoanalyst, who comes to treat Paul after he seeks her out to prescribe sleep medication. She forces Paul to re-evaluate his relationship with Gina.

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Patients

Dr. Laura Hill

Portrayed By: Melissa George

An anesthesiologist who is having issues with her boyfriend, and becomes erotically-fixated on Paul.

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• Dark and Troubled Past: She was molested a teen while living with a friend of her parents after the death of her mother. She initially claims to remember him with fondness (she compares the experience to Lolita), but later admits she looks back on the whole ordeal with horror.
• Florence Nightingale Effect: A realistic version. She suffers from a condition called "erotic transference", believing she is in love with Paul despite knowing virtually nothing about him. Paul correctly diagnoses this, but bungles the treatment due to his own attraction to her. Despite this, she is actually able to heal from the condition and move on from him.

Lt. Alex Prince

Portrayed By: Blair Underwood

A top-gun graduate and decorated Navy pilot, Alex seeks out Paul following a tour in Iraq, wherein he dropped a payload that accidentally killed 16 schoolchildren in Bagdad.

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• Abusive Parents: Not himself, but his own father is controlling and brow beats him frequently, and had been violent in the past.
• Ambiguous Situation: Whether his death was a deliberate suicide or a complete accident is left up in the air, but the former is implied.
• Armored Closet Gay: Maybe. He likes making homophobic remarks (despite his professed best friend being gay), and at one point goes off on a tangent about a dream he had about flying a plain that he interprets as having homosexual undertones. He doesn't seem to understand the idea of bisexuality.
• Broken Ace: He's a graduate of the Navy SFTI program, which is one of the most difficult in the US military. Thus, he sees himself as The Ace, and has the pilot skills to back it up. However, it becomes clear that guilt and his unresolved family issues have severely effected his mental health.
• Character Death: He's killed in a training exercise almost immediately after returning to active duty.
• Cool Old Guy: Played with. He's in his early forties, in great physical shape, and younger than Paul by well over a decade, but by Navy tradition he should be past his prime as a pilot. However, his physical abilities as a pilot are actually superior to those of his younger colleagues, which influences his superiors to put him back on active duty.
• Cool Shades: As befits a Navy pilot, he's frequently seen with a pair of Aviator sunglasses.
• Disappeared Dad: He becomes this briefly in season 1, spontaneously deciding to leave home and live on his own, leaving both of his children under the care of his wife, Michaela. He comes to regret this decision and eventually returns home, until he is redeployed.
• Going Down with the Ship: According to his father, he didn't pull the ejector-seat in his jet when he had the chance during his fateful training exercise. His father interprets this as a Suicide, Not Accident, and Paul comes to agree with this assessment.
• Mr. Fanservice: He keeps himself in impeccable shape, and Laura comments on the fact that he "has a great body".
• Must Have Caffeine: Alex loves his coffee and espresso, but has been warned off it by his physician and his wife due to his recent heart attack. He gets around it by buying a fancy espresso machine, which he browbeats Paul into letting him set up in Paul's office, so he can relax with caffein during therapy sessions.
• My God, What Have I Done?: What makes him seek out Paul. As part of a routine bombing mission with the Navy he successfully hit his target. However, Navy Intelligence screwed up, and the target wasn't holding insurgents but was instead a Madrassa (a Islamic religious school for boys), and the bomb killed 16 students. The revelation of these deaths haunt him for his entire time on the series, and unleashes the floodgates on his other psychological issues.
• Near-Death Experience: Part of his backstory. After being put on leave following the madrassa bombing, he went for a long distance run that eventually lasted so long that he had a heart attack and died on the street. His running partner (a doctor) was able to perform CPR until the ambulance arrived and was able to resuscitate him. He steadfastly claims that he experience no Go into the Light moment, which he feels disappoints those he tells the story to.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: An interesting case. He doesn't seem to suffer from direct PTSD, but is traumatized by the atrocities he committed while serving in the Navy, and carries the guilt with him.
• Troll: He really takes to trying to screw with Paul during their sessions together. At one point he deliberately provokes Paul into attacking him, and sleeps with Laura partially to see how Paul will react.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Zig zagged. On the one hand, he does crave his father's approval. On the other, he deliberately chose a career that would antagonize his father, who is vehemently anti-war.

Sophie

Portrayed By: Mia Wasikowska

A 16-year-old aspiring Olympic gymnast, Sophie begins treatment with Paul for his professional opinion, following a car accident wherein she broke both arms, in order to refute the insurance company's claim that she intentionally caused the accident as a suicide attempt.

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• A-Cup Angst: She makes a crack about her breasts being underdeveloped from her training and diet.
• Awful Truth: Paul suspects, and she later admits, that she has been molested by her coach, Cy. However, she has trouble coming to terms with this and believes their interactions were entirely consensual.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She's in a car accident just before the start of the series, wherein a car hit her while she was bike riding. Both her arms were broken, but her face remains prestine.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Intellectually, she seems to actually believe that she ruined her coach's family because he molested her, and his wife finding out led to Sophie getting fired as their babysitter. However, her emotional reaction makes it clear on some level that she knows a line has been crossed.
• Bungled Suicide: Twice:
  • She starts seeing Paul because she was hit by a car while driving her bike, and the driver's insurance company suspects a suicide attempt, and thus she needs this refuted by a therapist. She eventually admits to Paul that it was indeed a suicide attempt.
  • Later, after a particularly distressing therapy session with Paul, she retreats to the bathroom and downs a bottle of sleeping pills she finds (Paul had accidentally left them there because he was sleeping in the office the night prior). Fortunately, she passes out before leaving the session, and Paul immediately calls an ambulance, allowing her to survive.
• Broken Bird: She starts the show with two broken arms and a host of issues, including the draining stress of competing for a chance at the Olympics and having been molested by her coach. Paul is actually able to help her deal with some of these issues, and she is legitimately on the road to recovery in her last appearance.
• Daddy's Girl: She judges her mother for being responsible for her parents divorce, and to a certain extent idolizes her father. During therapy, she begins to re-evaluate this however.
• Deadpan Snarker: She likes snarking at Paul whenever he makes a good point.
• Teens Are Monsters: To her mother at least. In a therapy session together, she outright mocks her for being distressed at her own daughter's suicide attempt, and throws the idea that she's been molested in her face.
• Troll: She likes messing with Paul, like trying to goad him into undressing her when her clothes are soaked by the rain and he offers her some dry ones. However, Paul is quite savvy to this and doesn't take the bait.
• Weight Woe: As of the reality of training to be an Olympic gymnast, she has to be exceedingly careful about her weight. She insists she hasn't developed a full-on eating disorder (but her teammates have), but clearly has food issues.

Jake & Amy

Portrayed By: Josh Charles and Embeth Davidtz

A married couple who begin the series attempting to resolve their disagreement over whether or not to terminate Amy's most recent pregnancy.

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Mia Nesky

Portrayed By: Hope Davis

A former patient of Paul's who resumes therapy after Paul's insurance company contracts her law firm to handle a potential malpractice case. She is a highly successful corporate litigator, who has begun re-evaluating her choices to originally prioritize her career over her family life.

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• Daddy's Girl: She has a much closer relationship to her father than mother, but it veer into being unhealthily codependent at times.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted as part of her backstory. During her original sessions with Paul while she was in law school, she became pregnant and had an abortion. She partially blames Paul for this, claiming they "made the decision together". However, her father is actually the one who convinced her to go through with it.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: At one point, she brings Paul coffee and donuts prior to her session, in an attempt to have breakfast with him. Her main social interactions are with the man she is having an affair with and her assistant.
• Lonely at the Top: She is professionally very successful, with a corner office in a New York skyscraper. However, she is deeply lonely with almost no friends, and having an affair with her Jerkass boss, Bennet.
• Old Maid: She's terrified of becoming this, having not had a serious loving relationship in years and very much wanting a family of her own.
• Pregnancy Scare: Subverted. She's actually elated when she thinks she's pregnant, and begins re-evaluating her entire life moving forward. The fact that it is actually early-onset menopause absolutely devistates her.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In her own words she wants a partner who will hold her when she cries. She has lousy luck with men unfortunately.

April

Portrayed By: Alison Pill

An architecture student at Pratt, who begins treatment with Paul after receiving a cancer diagnosis, which she has kept secret from her friends and family while trying to avoid chemotherapy. She has a difficult family-life, due to her parents being consumed with caring for her severely autistic brother, Daniel.

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• A-Cup Angst: After her first chemotherapy treatment, she asks Paul if he witnessed the doctors putting in the port (which she would have had to have been topless for), and when he confirms that he stepped out to give her privacy, she snarks that her breasts aren't much to look at.
• Promotion to Parent: She is terrified of this happening to her, as her brother is special-needs and will not be able to function without her or their parents to take care of him, and she doesn't want to. She harbors a lot of guilt about this.
• Suicide for Others' Happiness: One reason she justifies not receiving treatment. She doesn't want to be a burden on her loved ones, who already have their hands full with her brother. Paul has to finally brow-beat her into going to get her first round of treatment after becoming legitimately terrified she might die between sessions.
• Took a Level in Badass: By the end of her treatment by Paul, she has grown enough of a spine to finally tell her parents about her illness.
• The Topic of Cancer: She starts the show having just gotten a cancer diagnosis, having refused to tell anyone but Paul. Much of her therapy revolves around getting her the courage to tell her parents, even after she starts chemo.
• The Unfavorite: Of a sort. Her brother's condition requires the constant attention of her parents, who rely on her to be self-sufficient and not need their care. It's one reason she doesn't want to share her diagnosis with them. She recounts a story about how, on a family vacation when she was a child, she fell out a hotel-room window while her parents were with her, and though unharmed, returned to the room and realized her parents hadn't noticed her absence.

Oliver

Portrayed By: Aaron Shaw

An expressive 12-year old, who's parents have placed him in therapy with Paul to deal with navigating their impending divorce. He struggles with feelings of deep inadequacy due to his weight and blaming himself (erroneously) for his parents marital issues.

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Bess & Luke

Portrayed By: Sherri Saum and Russell Hornsby

A divorcing couple who begin seeing Paul in order to navigate the effects of their divorce on their son, Oliver. Bess is also trying to navigate having to re-start her social and professional life, having previously put it on hold to be a stay-at-home mother, while Luke is trying to navigate beginning to date again while dealing with his high-pressure corporate job.

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Walter Barnett

Portrayed By: John Mahoney

A self-confident CEO navigating a company safety scandal that occurred under his watch, he begins seeing Paul after he develops insomnia, which interferes with his workaholic tendencies. He also suffers from a history of panic-attacks, which he is in deep denial about.

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• The Insomniac: He enters the series seeking treatment for this, as he claims to have never had sleep issues in the past and needs a good night's sleep to handle the current crisis his company faces.
• The Unfavorite: His deceased brother Tommy was the center of his parents' hopes and dreams, and therefore feels he needs to try to live up to his example.
• The Workaholic: He's a very hands-on CEO, and constantly answers his two cellphones to give his underlings instructions. He's also almost entirely defined by his work, and once he is forced to resign, he doesn't know what to do with himself.

Sunil Sanyal

Portrayed By: Irrfan Khan

A 52-year-old immigrant from Calcutta, who is dealing with the recent death of his wife, and navigating his relationship with his son and daughter-in-law.

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Frances

Portrayed By: Debra Winger

A successful actress who seeks out Paul after developing difficulty remembering her lines, who also is living in deep fear that she may soon develop breast cancer, based on her family's history.

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Jesse D'Amato

Portrayed By: Dane DeHaan

A manipulative teenager who is sent to therapy by his adoptive parents, following his juvenile-delinquent behavior at school.

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Weston Family

Kate Weston

Portrayed By: Michelle Forbes

Paul's wife, and ex-wife after the first season.

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• Hero of Another Story: She runs a shelter for battered women. Suffice-it-to-say, she's probably the hero of a great many offscreen stories.

Ian Weston

Portrayed By: Jake Richardson

Paul and Kate's elder son.

Rosie Weston

Portrayed By: Mae Whitman

Paul and Kate's daughter.

Max Weston

Portrayed By: Max Burkholder and Alex Wolff

Paul and Kate's younger son.

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• The Other Darrin: He was recast in Season 3.

Patients' Families

Zack

Portrayed By: Peter Horton

Sophie's father.

Olivia

Portrayed By: Julia Campbell

Sophie's mother.

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• Hysterical Woman: Subverted. She seems like this at first, but her daughter has just attempted suicide twice, has been gravely injured, and has been molested by her coach. Her large reactions and concerns for Sophie are entirely reasonable. She seems hysterical because she is at her wit's end and desperate for some measure of safety for Sophie.

Alex Prince, Sr.

Portrayed By: Glynn Turman

A former civil rights activist-turned successful businessman, he is Alex's stern and perfectionist father.

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• Abusive Parents: Alex recounts a story at one point of his father mercilessly "slapping the shit out of (him)" after Alex was mugged as a child, humiliating Alex for his weakness and forcing him to later learn to fight. He also mocks him for trying to receive psychological help.
• The Ace: Alex resents him for being this. Having a father who actually marched with Martin Luther-King Jr. makes it difficult to actually call him on his bullshit, as he is seen as having greatly suffered for the black community as a whole. However, his meetings with Paul reveal that he is actually a Broken Ace, a feature that he unwittingly passed onto his son.
• The Casanova: Alex mentions that he repeatedly had affairs with women from his office, but refused to ever consider divorcing his wife. Alex not wanting to repeat this pattern causes some trouble in his own marriage when he takes the wrong lesson from it.
• The Dreaded: Alex dreads confrontations with him.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He breaks into Manly Tears during his first long conversation with Paul, wondering out loud if his poor parenting may have contributed to his son's perceived suicide.
• Parents as People: He's deeply scarred by his past trauma, and while he tried to raise Alex well, his own issues scarred Alex in turn.
• Patricide: He killed his own father accidentally. The KKK had attacked their house, and while the family were hiding in the basement, his father was unable to keep silent due to wheezing from lung cancer. Prince was forced to smother him to keep them all from being found and murdered. He harbors intense guilt about this in the present day, but doesn't try to hide it, in fact telling the story once a year to his family on his father's birthday.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He's particularly good at doling these out to Alex.
• Self-Made Man: He was originally from a poor family before excelling at business in the 1970s. He seems to partially resent his own son for having a better life handed to him.

Arun Sanyal

Portrayed By: Samrat Chakrabarti

Sunil's son, a doctor.

Julia

Portrayed By: Sonya Walger

Arun's wife and Sunil's daughter-in-law, a literary agent.

Marisa D'Amato

Portrayed By: Dendrie Taylor

Jesse's adoptive mother.

Roberto D'Amato

Portrayed By: Joseph Sirabo

Jesse's adoptive father.

Other Characters

Tammy Kent

Portrayed By: Laila Robbins

A childhood friend and girlfriend of Paul's, with whom he has a brief fling in season two.

Steve

Portrayed By: James Lloyd Reynolds

Kate's fiance in season three.

Wendy

Portrayed By: Susan Misner

Paul's girlfriend in season three.

Season 4 Characters

Therapists

Dr. Brooke Taylor

Portrayed By: Uzo Aduba

Rita

Portrayed By: Liza Colón-Zayas

Patients

Eladio

Portrayed By: Anthony Ramos

Colin

Portrayed By: John Benjamin Hickey

Laila

Portrayed By: Quintessa Swindell

Supporting Characters

Adam

Portrayed By: Joel Kinnaman

Rhonda

Portrayed By: Charlayne Woodard