麻豆传媒映画

As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Afarin Rajaei is trained to see people in mental and emotional distress are not merely experiencing something internal. They are reacting to the relationships, systems and cultural context in which they exist.

Perhaps it should be no surprise, then, that the 麻豆传媒映画 associate professor was so drawn to 鈥淭ed Lasso.鈥�

The Apple TV series, which returns for a fourth season on Aug. 5, is a fish-out-of-water comedy about an American football coach (Jason Sudeikis) who is hired as the manager of an English Premier League soccer club. Yet, in many ways, 鈥淭ed Lasso鈥� is also a drama about healthy relationships and overcoming trauma as much as it is an amusing deconstruction of footballer stereotypes.

Rajaei, who is starting her second year as director of 麻豆传媒映画's MFT program, was so intrigued that she integrated the show into her scholarship. Her article 鈥�,鈥� co-authored with Chantal Hanna, was published last fall by the International Journal of Systemic Therapy.

The 麻豆传媒映画 News Team recently sat down with Rajaei to discuss Lasso, cinema therapy and why stories matter.

Just to get people acquainted, can you please describe your area of research and expertise?

I would describe my research and expertise as living at the intersection of relationships, health and justice. My doctoral training was in medical family therapy, so a big part of my scholarly lens is equity in healthcare systems and the human side of health systems. At the same time, I have always been interested in romantic relationships, because intimate partnerships are one of the most powerful sites where attachment, identity, culture and healing collide. I also do studies on AI in the training and clinical worlds.

You鈥檝e also been pursuing something called cinema therapy. Can you explain that? 

Cinema therapy is about using story as a therapeutic technology that humans have relied on forever, and bringing that into our teaching, training, supervision and clinical work in a culturally responsive way. In our 鈥淭ed Lasso鈥� paper, for example, we explicitly frame the show as a cultural text that can inform clinical reflection and emotional transformation through a systemic and narrative lens.

Speaking of Ted Lasso, did you start watching out of academic curiosity or for personal enjoyment?

It started as leisure, completely. I watched it as comfort-viewing and it landed for me emotionally first. 鈥淭ed Lasso鈥� has that tone where humor and warmth create safety, and then serious themes show up inside that safety. Later, the professor and clinical hats went on because I realized the show is doing something culturally important: It normalizes vulnerability, therapy and relational leadership in a way that is accessible and not preachy.

When the show started touching on deeper themes, was that a pleasant surprise?

It was a pleasant surprise how consistently the show stayed with those themes. At surface level, it is about a team and a coach. But underneath, it is about identity, belonging, shame, repair, mentorship and what happens when kindness becomes a practice instead of a personality trait. It also challenges cultural scripts about masculinity and leadership, which is one reason it became such a powerful text to analyze systemically.

What storylines that you feel illustrate that best?

One of the clearest examples is Ted鈥檚 openness about his panic attacks and his willingness to name that reality in therapy. When Ted discloses panic attacks to Dr. Sharon (Sarah Niles), the storyline challenges the cultural narrative that help seeking equals weakness. It models that vulnerability is not a collapse of leadership, it is part of ethical leadership.

A second storyline is Roy Kent鈥檚 (Brett Goldstein) shift from emotional suppression to emotional presence. There is a scene where Roy comforts Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) after a painful encounter with his father, and what matters is not a perfect speech, it is presence. The show teaches that witnessing can be healing, and that relational safety can be communicated even without words.

A third example is Jamie鈥檚 re-authoring arc. He starts with an individualistic story about being the best, and later names a preferred story about winning together. That is narrative change in plain language, moving from a thin story of self protection to a thicker story of connection and belonging.

As a therapist yourself, what did you make of the depiction of Dr. Sharon in Season 2?

I genuinely appreciated it. The show presents therapy as collaborative and human, not as a caricature. That matters culturally, because media portrayals can either reinforce stereotypes or model informed, compassionate perspectives. In 鈥淭ed Lasso,鈥� therapy is not framed as something you do because you are broken. It is framed as something you do because you are human and you want to take care of yourself and your relationships.

With all this in mind, what do you make of Ted Lasso鈥檚 popularity?

The popularity tells us something about what people are hungry for. In the paper, we describe 鈥淭ed Lasso鈥� as countercultural, because it centers empathy, collaboration and emotional openness in spaces that are usually shaped by dominance and toughness narratives. I think many viewers recognize themselves in the emotional experiences, even if they have never been on a team. You only need to know shame, or loneliness, or the pressure to perform to understand what is happening. The show becomes a public pedagogy 鈥� a shared story that quietly teaches emotional literacy and makes therapy feel less stigmatized.

If you were to take your professor hat off for a moment, who are your favorite characters and why?

Ted is still a favorite because he models a relational stance that is both hopeful and accountable. I also really appreciate Dr. Sharon, because her presence in the show is quietly radical. She is competent, boundaried, human, and not there to rescue anyone 鈥� she is there to build a process. And Roy is a favorite because his arc is so honest about how difficult it can be for men to find emotional language, and how healing it is when they do. The show gives him room to be messy and still be deeply caring. That鈥檚 a healthier masculinity story.