Is 'Couples Therapy' on Showtime Real? It's Shockingly Real Details!

Is 'Couples Therapy' on Showtime real? The docuseries follows eight folks struggling to keep their marriages in combination. Get the main points here.

Allison Cacich - Author

When we heard that Couples Therapy used to be coming to Showtime, our first idea was once, "You mean that VH1 reality show that featured D-list celebrities?"

Though the two techniques percentage a reputation, Showtime’s new docuseries couldn’t be more different from the only starring Dr. Jenn. For starters, the show follows Dr. Orna Guralnik, a celebrated medical psychologist and psychoanalyst who teaches on the National Institute for the Psychotherapies.

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Over the process six months, cameras documented her sessions with four New York-based couples at odds over the whole lot from sex to kids. But are those eight folks real people in need of real help or are they manufactured to entertain TV addicts like us who love to watch other people argue? 

Is Couples Therapy on Showtime real?

According to Guralnik, these spouses are her real shoppers and the filmmakers had a surprisingly hands-off approach when it came to them.

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"They were super respectful of the participants, non-sensational, only wanting the truth, not wanting anything that is fabricated," she instructed From the Grapevine. "I feel like in this day and age, it's a very important piece of work. It really goes against this whole intense polarization and demonization that this culture is afflicted by."

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But there is something that isn’t one hundred percent real: Guralnik’s workplace. "It’s an upgraded replica of my office," she shared, explaining that her precise workspace used to be too small to suit a digicam team. 

Yet even on this new atmosphere, the couples by no means saw the equipment. Everything was filmed thru a 360-degree, one-way replicate that encloses the set. "There were cameras on dollies, and six camera people operating the cameras throughout all of the sessions. But you wouldn't know it sitting in the office," Guralnik published.

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Executive manufacturer Josh Kriegman advised The Daily Beast that he and manufacturing spouse Elyse Steinberg didn’t wish to falsify narratives so as to make a juicy, bingeable display. 

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"The real dynamics of a relationship is always more complicated than it appears. With this show, you get to see the relationships from the inside," he said. "People are going to have a wide range of reaction to this. These are real people who are struggling and fighting for their relationships."

Steinberg added, "I think there is some comfort in seeing these struggles and identifying with them personally, making a connection [with the couples]."

Couples Therapy after all lets in us to be a fly on the wall.

Viewers won't know anything else about those couples when they first start looking at, however it doesn’t take long to change into invested of their very relatable and really intimate issues.

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For instance, one duo — who’s been married for 23 years — isn’t in any respect on the same page with regards to their intercourse life. He wants to spice issues up, however is by no means pleased with the dominatrix-themed threesome that his spouse deliberate for his birthday.

"[The audience wants] to know what's going to happen," Guralnik explained to From the Grapevine. "And they get personally identified with the people on the show, and want to know, 'OK, does this go well or not? Is there hope or not?'"

Sounds like the kind of remedy we’ve been craving. New episodes of Showtime’s Couples Therapy air Fridays at 10 p.m. ET.

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