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How do you find hope after devastation or trauma? How do you handle the pain of people you care about?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright talk about some of the answers to those questions from the coming of age story for Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. They take a look at acceptance (of yourself, of others, and from others), healing from past trauma, mental health, finding love and friendship, and how this feels authentic to a lot of the teen experience. They also talk about the fabulous performances from Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, but really mostly Paul Rudd because he's always the best.

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Comments

Bethany Fairchild

I adore this movie; so much so that I listened to the entire audiobook a few weeks ago as well. (I simply won't finish reading a book; I never get through the whole thing.) I really think Charlie is autistic, the way he's written in the book. The way he thinks is very logical, and the way he notices every little change in the people he cares about. I relate to his "breakdown"; he's been suppressing all of those feelings and emotions for so long that eventually it just erupts.

Karrina Warren

As someone who has experienced the same abuse as Charlie at the hands of a family member, I can understand the head banging. Anything to remove the memory, or replace the feeling of being back in that traumatic time. My therapist used a lot of questions as well, because she could tell how defensive I was about it. I wanted to talk about it but I wanted to see the good, and I think this movie portrayed it well. The emotion was there, and the behavior is there or at least similar to what I experienced

MeerderWörter

What I find so interesting is how I wasn't aware of the abuse until someone pointed it out to me, as I wrote above some of the things that Charlie is experiencing or doing are so normal for me I didn't know it would be something that isn't done by everybody. I was wondering if maybe you could go a bit more into the abuse part and talk about it from a therapeutic perspective?

Beatlesfan1412

This movie when I first discovered it, took place in an important chapter of my life. It was the first time I was aware of what mental health was. Roughy around the same time I was introduced to the movie (specifically movie, not book) I was emotionally attached to it and it helped get me through addressing unidentified trauma I had. The book is so much detailed to the movie, which lost my interest towards the subject of the story. As a movie by itself: I really liked it. Just wasn’t prepared of what the original source was much detailed

Marissa Lesath

By chance ended up watching this right after the back to the future episode, where Jono says he feels like he was a teenager not that long ago. Being a therapist for teens: It's definitely both and it depends on what they're into. If they're into Tiktok or *checks notes* Skibidi Toilet? I was a teen centuries ago. If they're a metal head that's into DND it feels like it was yesterday.

Tres Ring

I enjoyed this episode and learning about Manic Pixie Dream Girls. I also liked the Fight Club and Love, Simon episodes. Hope you guys do an episode on The Shawshank Redemption!

Sam

My heart breaks for Charlie, because the rationalizing and excusing away the trauma is just so accurate. Not to mention how even a pleasant experience can be triggering.

Lydia Crowther

So, I have done the. head banging thing before and I didn't even realize that it was something that was a trigger response. It seems so logical to me to do that I didn't realize that others might see it as nonsensical.