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Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
When Did All of These People Become Therapists?
Jeremy Sosenko moved to Los Angeles in 2007, determined to make it as a successful screenwriter, like his heroes the Coen Brothers, or Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. He and his writing partner quickly found success, crafting cinematic jokes and dialogue for the likes of Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard. Work was, for the most part, steady and lucrative until the spring 2023 Writer's Guild of America strike . 'It started to seem like I might need to think about transitioning to a different career,' Sosenko, 47, recalled. On a walk one May morning, he was feeling particularly hopeless. 'I remember having a heart-to-heart talk with my wife and I said the only thing I could think of being that wouldn't make me miserable was a therapist, but you have to go to school to be a therapist,' he said. 'She had the brilliant insight of, 'Why don't you go to school to be a therapist?'' This summer, he's juggling eight clients. As artificial intelligence, offshore labor and the gig economy shatter any illusion of job security, once-stable career paths have turned into dead ends. For those like Sosenko in creative fields, the opportunities and salaries are being yanked faster than Stephen Colbert's contract. Pity the poor graphic designer, who according to the World Economic Forum is down there with postal workers and legal secretaries among the fastest-declining jobs. For these formerly upwardly mobile professionals, there is at least one seemingly recession-proof career pivot to make: becoming a therapist. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of mental-health counselors is projected to grow by 18% by 2033. Marriage and family therapist employment is expected to rise by 15%, and counseling psychologists by 11%. That's well above the average 3% for other occupations. 'There is always going to be a need and desire for human connection, and for human connection in the treatment space,' said Marnie Shanbhag, senior director of the Office of Independent Practice at the American Psychological Association. 'Covid reminded us all you could be going for your normal Tuesday and life can shift on a dime. It was an existential reminder of, 'If not now, when?'' Eliza Dushku, who spent her turn-of-the-millennium years starring in cult classics like 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Tru Calling,' took the 'now' option. In June, she posted a video on Instagram of herself in cap and gown, receiving a Master of Arts in clinical mental health counseling from Lesley University. 'Today, I stand grounded and ready to support others on their journeys of becoming—through self-discovery, healing, and transformation,' Dushku captioned the post. This summer, screenwriter Jeremy Sosenko is juggling eight therapy clients. Singer-songwriter Ed Droste, frontman of the indie rock band Grizzly Bear, whose songs were featured on shows such as 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Sex Education' (and a Volkswagen commercial), back-burnered his band to pursue a therapy practice. 'It's kind of one of those things I just had to take the plunge and be like, 'Am I going to do this or not?' Droste said on the March 2, 2020, episode of the podcast 'Lunch Therapy.' 'I was like, you know what, I'm ready for a change.' His Psychology Today profile (where he's Edward, not Ed) obliquely references his musical career but focuses on his multidisciplinary approach, alongside a picture of a welcoming tawny leather couch. For creative people whose careers were built on their understanding the intricacies of the human experience, becoming a therapist isn't the largest of leaps. Award-winning filmmaker David Schisgall, 57, spent decades documenting psychologically complex stories, from Theo Padnos's time held captive by al Qaeda in 'Theo Who Lived' to the lives of sex-trafficked children in 'Very Young Girls.' But while making last year's 'Anatomy of Lies,' he decided he needed something more. 'I really liked doing narrative therapy with people who'd been through a floridly traumatic experience, traumatic enough to be the subject of a film, and working with them to craft a story of their lives that they could live with and share with the world,' he said. 'What I realized was I had been winging it and had almost no training.' When Schisgall enrolled at New York University, where he also teaches journalism, he was surprised by how many career-shifters were among his social work classmates. 'I expected to be the oldest person by 30 years and to be a fish out of water and I was not,' he said. 'There are actually a lot of people who want to go into social work to do emotionally fulfilling work after they've done X, Y and Z.' 'It's a common inflection point for people in midlife, who by then have been working for 15 to 20 years, to think differently about the next 15 to 20,' Shanbhag said. And that goes across all professions. 'I have known pharmacists, teachers, attorneys and many others leave their professional careers to become psychotherapists,' said Mirean Coleman, the National Association of Social Workers' director of clinical practice. 'Clinical social workers enjoy the concept and benefits of being their own boss and creating their own benefits and policies.' Deborah Halpern, 61, a successful marketer who rose through the ranks at companies such as Kraft and Campbell's, stopped thinking about status once she started paying attention to a field she'd been drawn to since her undergraduate days at the University of Pennsylvania. 'I had accomplished enough that I was confident that if I got a masters in social work and people didn't see it as an accomplishment, that was OK with me,' she said. Now she says she's 'finally doing what I should have been doing for the past 40 years.' She's 'never been so in the zone,' she said. 'People ask me, 'Isn't it too much to have eight clients in a day?' I say, 'No, I've never loved something so much.'' Deborah Halpern went from a successful marketing career to pursuing a masters in social work. She says she's 'finally doing what I should have been doing for the past 40 years.' Many people in midlife are finding that the fields they spent decades working in are nowhere near what they once were. 'The industry I grew up in has fallen apart,' said Trent Johnson, 50, a former creative director who worked in media for 27 years. 'There's always the 'what if' if someone from Vogue suddenly wanted an art director. But it doesn't have the luster that it used to. The magic of that is gone.' With its national salary average of $61,330, therapists with social work degrees do not bring in Hollywood or even media money, and it is a luxury to be able to afford taking a massive pay cut. 'It's not corporate money, but it gives me something else,' Halpern said. 'I get paid so little it's unconscionable, but I'm happy at the end of the day.' She retained a 10-hour-a-month consulting gig that pays more than a week of therapy sessions. Likewise, Sosenko is still writing (albeit with less pressure to lean into the mainstream and more marketable ideas), Schisgall is developing docs and Droste's band Grizzly Bear will embark on its first tour in six years this fall. Whatever happens with those side gigs, the need for therapy might just be timeless. 'As long as there are people,' Shanbhag said, 'there are going to be people problems.' When Did All of These People Become Therapists?
Elle
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
'Stranger Things' 5: What We Know So Far About The Final Season
All good things must come to an end—even Stranger Things. The hit Netflix sci-fi thriller, which first arrived in the summer of 2016, will conclude with its fifth season, which has no release date yet. The show's creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, announced the news with a bittersweet letter to fans on February 17, 2022. 'Seven years ago, we planned out the complete story arc for Stranger Things,' they wrote. 'At the time, we predicted the story would last four to five seasons. It proved too large to tell in four, but—as you'll soon see for yourselves—we are now hurtling toward our finale. Season 4 will be the penultimate season; season 5 will be the last.' FIND OUT MORE ON ELLE COLLECTIVE After Stranger Things' season 4 premiered in 2022 (with quite the jam-packed finale), the wait for the next and final chapter continues. Here's what we know so far. Season 5 will premiere in November 2025, with four episodes coming out on November 26, followed by three episodes on Christmas, and the finale on New Year's Eve, ending a nearly three-year-long wait since season 4. In May 2023, the Writer's Guild of America voted to strike for fairer wages and other issues facing TV and screenplay writers, such as the use of AI and the 'mini-rooms' that have become the norm, making it far more difficult for writers to earn a living. The Duffer brothers announced via the show's official Twitter account that they would be halting production in support of the WGA and the writers on the picket line, further delaying the release of season 5. 'Duffers here. Writing does not stop when filming begins,' they explained. 'While we're excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then -- over and out. #wgastrong.' The SAG strike, which ran until November of 2023, also delayed production. Stranger Things reportedly resumed filming in January 2024. Production began on Jan. 8, 2024, with writers sharing a photo of the cast gathered together with the Duffer Brothers. Photos taken on Thursday, January 18, and posted by TMZ, show the cast filming in Atlanta, with David Harbour and Winona Ryder coming to set and the kids shooting emotional final scenes for the series. In one picture, Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard can be seen having a conversation on top of a hill. Others take place on a radio station set. They reached the halfway point of filming in July, which Netflix announced with a behind-the-scenes video from set. The footage teases a few things: Vecna is back, the kids are in high school, and there are some pretty massive set pieces. The actors also reflect on their journeys with Stranger Things. Millie Bobby Brown says, 'I started when I was 10. I'm not turning 20 years old. Feels very weird.' On Dec. 20, 2024, Netflix announced that filming on the final season had wrapped, sharing some adorable behind-the-scenes pics of the cast and crew. Most of the main cast is expected to return, including Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), Noah Schnapp (Will), Natalia Dyer (Nancy), Sadie Sink (Max), Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Joe Keery (Steve), Priah Ferguson (Erica), and Winona Ryder (Joyce). And at least one new cast member will join in season 5, as Netflix announced during its 2023 TUDUM event: Terminator actress Linda Hamilton. While announcing the halfway point of filming, Netflix also shared three new additions to the Stranger Things 5 cast: Nell Fisher (Bookworm), Jake Connelly (Between the Silence), and Alex Breaux (Waco: The Aftermath). For her part, Brown is ready to return—but only once more. She admitted to Seventeen that she's eager for season 5 to be her last. 'I'm definitely ready to wrap up,' she said. 'I feel like there's a lot of the story that's been told now. It's been in our lives for a very long time. But I'm very ready to say goodbye to this chapter of my life, and open new ones up.' Brown added, 'I'm able to create stories myself that are important to me and focus on the bigger picture. But I'm really grateful [for the show].' But she was a bit mournful when the end finally came. On Friday, December 20, she shared an emotional video in which she is thanking the cast and crew on Instagram, along with a bunch of pictures from her years on set. 'Isn't graduation supposed to bring relief? Like you're glad to leave behind the teachers and classmates. Not me,' she said in the black-and-white video. 'I am nowhere near ready to leave you guys. I love each and every one of you and I will forever carry the memories and bonds we created together as a family. I love you, thank you.' Brown got teary during her speech and was met with applause and cheers. How do you sum up this epic story, which transcends dimensions and stretches far beyond the borders of Hawkins, Indiana? The Duffers have a plan; we're just not privy to it yet. We do know one thing, though: Expect tears. 'We do have an outline for season 5 and we pitched it to Netflix and they really responded well to it,' Ross Duffer told The Wrap in May 2022. 'I mean, it was hard. It's the end of the story. I saw executives crying who I've never seen cry before and it was wild.' Actor David Harbour, who plays Hopper, had previously confirmed to Variety that he'd learned the season 5 ending and thought it 'quite moving and quite beautiful.' In the Duffer Brothers' February 2022 letter to fans, they added, 'There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes.' Might that mean a spin-off in the future? 'But first we hope that you stay with us as we finish this tale of a powerful girl named Eleven and her brave friends, of a broken police chief and a ferocious mom, of a small town called Hawkins and an alternate dimension called the Upside Down. As always, we are gracious for your patience and your support.' The showrunning duo also confirmed there would be no 'reset' going into season 5. Matt Duffer told Empire, 'Usually at the end of a season, we tie things up with a nice bow, before a little tease that says, 'Hold on, something is unraveling.' As we move into season 5, we won't have to do that. There won't be a reset from where we finish this season [season 4].' And the Duffers kept their word: Season 4 ends with a cliffhanger, as the Hawkins crew prepares for one last battle with the Upside Down. We can also expect Will Byers to come out. As actor Noah Schnapp confirmed to Variety, 'it's 100% clear that he is gay and he does love Mike,' later adding, 'There's so many different things they have to address. Obviously, we hope for a coming out scene, and I also want to see them address this connection to the Mind Flayer and how that fits into the world. And I've always been wondering, why was Will the first victim and the first one captured?' Vecna isn't necessarily gone for good. Jamie Campbell Bower told NME, 'I don't think he's slunk off licking his wounds in misery. He's rebuilding, and he's out for blood.' He could stronger than ever in season 5. As for Eleven, we don't know what's going to happen to her in the final season, but Millie Bobby Brown seems to know her character's fate, and it's making fans nervous. In March 2024, the actress spoke with Capital FM about the series' conclusion. 'I haven't read the end,' she said. 'I know what happens to my character because I kind of forced myself into the writers room.' 'Basically, I messaged the directors, "Can I come over and have a meeting with you?" And then I came over, and there was a whiteboard,' she explained. 'I just saw my ending and thought, "Oooooh," and then I walked away very slowly.' The internet was nervous about her reaction, believing that Elle may be in for a dark finale. During Netflix's 2025 preview in January, Matt Duffer said that the final season is 'our most personal story. It was super intense and emotional to film—for us and for our actors. We've been making this show together for almost ten years. There was a lot of crying. There was SO much crying. The show means so much to all of us, and everyone put their hearts and souls into it. And we hope—and believe—that passion will translate to the screen.' The Stranger Things writers hinted that there'll be eight episodes when they tweeted a photo of a whiteboard separated into eight columns, each numbered from episode 1-8. They later tweeted the first page of the script for season 5, episode 1 on Nov. 6. It's titled 'Chapter 1: The Crawl.' The episodes will probably be shorter than season 4's super-sized ones—except for the finale. 'The only reason we don't expect to be as long is, this season [season 4], if you look at it, it's almost a two-hour ramp up before our kids really get drawn into a supernatural mystery. You get to know them, you get to see them in their lives, they're struggling with adapting to high school and so forth, Steve's trying to find a date, all of that. None of that is obviously going to be occurring [in season 5],' Matt Duffer said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2022, per Deadline. When it comes to the series finale, 'We're more likely to do what we did here, which is to just have a 2.5 hour episode,' he added. During a preview for Netflix's slate in January 2025, Ross said that 'this is our biggest and most ambitious season yet. It's like eight blockbuster movies.' Netflix teased the episode titles in the video below. Probably not immediately after the events in season 4, if that's what you're expecting. Ross Duffer told TVLine in 2022, 'I'm sure we will do a time jump.' Which makes sense, given how quickly our lead actors are growing up. 'Ideally, we'd have shot [seasons 4 and 5] back to back,' Ross added, 'but there was just no feasible way to do that.' Sure enough, the duo confirmed that there will be a one-year time jump between the events in seasons 4 and 5. Season 5 will be set in the fall of 1987. Yes. We just don't know what it will be about yet. (Though Finn Wolfhard has apparently already figured it out.) 'There's a version of it developing in parallel [to season 5], but they would never shoot it parallel,' Ross Duffer told Variety. 'I think actually we're going to start delving into that soon as we're winding down and finishing these visual effects, Matt and I are going to start getting into it.' Matt Duffer added, 'It's going to be different than what anyone is expecting, including Netflix.' Intriguing indeed. During Netflix's 2025 preview, Matt Duffer teased potential spinoffs. 'There are more Stranger Things stories to tell and in the works,' he said. 'It's a bit early at this point to talk about them, but we're deeply involved in every one—it's very important to us that anything with the Stranger Things name on it is of the highest quality and not repetitive—that it has a reason to exist and always blazes its own path. And also, it needs to basically just be... awesome.' In the meantime, the play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, a prequel about Henry Creel before he became Vecna, is playing on the West End and soon headed to Broadway. Not yet, but so far, we have a slew of behind-the-scenes photos from production above. The writers gave their very first tease of the script. In November 2023, they shared a snippet from 'Season 5. Chapter 1. Scene 1.' This story will be updated. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE. Erica Gonzales is the Deputy Editor, Culture at where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now.
