In Treatment 3x15

This is another intense session with Jesse. Not because he is his usual antagonistic, foulmouthed, attention-deficit rebel, quite the contrary. He is much calmer, more hopeful and satisfied, even cheerful. What changed his mood is that his adoptive father Roberto got very angry when he heard that Jesse’s birth mother Karen had tried to contact him. It gave Jesse a sense of being loved seeing how much distress it has caused his parents fearing that he might disappear from their lives. He also felt closer to his father since Roberto helped him with his algebra and scored a “B” on his test. In fact, Jesse wants nothing to do anymore with his birth parents. He received a letter from his biological father Kevin, who is now married to Karen and regrets that they had to give him up for adoption when they were teenagers. For years Jesse has been dreaming about his birth parents, coming up with the wildest fantasies about them, but now that he can actually meet them, the reality of it is no longer as attractive. He needed to be loved, and has found that his parents did care for him for the past seventeen years. He expresses his emotions about his biological parents’ attempts to contact him in almost the same words as he describes Roberto’s anger. He wrote a very formal response to Kevin, declining their request and begging them not to get in touch with him again. Paul, however, understands Jesse’s biological parents’ desire to get to know their son, even if they don’t mean to take him away from Roberto and Marissa. He encourages Jesse to reconsider his response to Kevin. And when Jesse notices the remarkable similarities between his handwriting and that of Kevin, he is overwhelmed. He wonders if maybe he does have things in common with his birth parents. In short, a remarkable breakthrough happen in therapy, even though Paul had nothing much to do with it.