In therapy, and proud of it

In the eighties and nineties it seemed like every celebrity in Hollywood was being analyzed by one of the almost equally famous – and prosperous because of it – therapists in L.A. Daily 45-minute-sessions of navel-gazing on Freud’s sofa is not very hot right now, but quick-fix-therapy is. Melanie Griffith likes a drink or two and voluntarily checked herself into rehab recently to "reinforce her commitment to stay healthy". Celebs, it seems, get into rehab or short treatmentprograms for anything imaginable. Just to name a few: party-addiction (Lindsay Lohan), drugs (Lindsay Lohan, Amy Winehouse), alcoholism (Lindsay Lohan, David Hasselhof, although he might consider being readmitted, after his recent drunk performance at the MTV awards), sleeping pills (Eminem), homophobia (Lindsay… ehm, I mean, Isaiah Washington), racism (Michael ‘Kramer’ Richards). And the interesting thing is celebrities are usually quite honest, even to the extend of being proud of it, about their therapeutic past.

A short overview:

Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie on her cheating therapy: “I’ve been very honest with my husband from the get-go. I think women are beautiful, I’ve had a lot of fun with women, and I’m not ashamed of it. The problem is that I also love a well-endowed man. But just because I enjoy women doesn’t mean I’m allowed to have affairs in my relationship. I learned through talking with my therapist that it is still cheating even if it’s with girls, so there is a rule there.”

Michael Richards' publicist, Howard Rubenstein: “He has already begun psychiatric counseling in Los Angeles to learn how to manage his anger and understand why he made the racist remarks.”

John Travolta is having daily religious therapy sessions with his family to help them work through the tragedy of son Jett's (16) death in January: “We've been working very hard every day as a family to heal. We have our own way of doing it, and it has been helping.”

LaToya Jackson, told the world about her brother Michael’s kids Paris, 11, Prince 12, and Blanket, 7, being in therapy: "Prince just doesn't want to speak about it. I do worry about him very much. While his sister Paris thinks and talks about her father all the time. She's doing very well, writes a lot and she wears his shirts every day. They still smell of him and it helps her feel close to him."

More kidstherapy. Denise Richards on her daughters - four-year-old Sam and three-year-old Lola - getting professional help to cope with the divorce of their parents: "My kids are in therapy. It's very sad that they need to be there, but they do for now. On the other hand, it's good they have an outlet to deal with their feelings and someone who is just their advocate. If I can help anyone feel better about their kids being in therapy - then something else good has come of this, too."

R&B artist Chris Brown will undergo 52 hours of domestic violence counselling, part of his punishment for beating ex-girlfriend Rihanna. Brown himself has said: "Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired. I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person."

Madonna (50) - notoriously controlling when it comes to relationships - has said to begun a course of intense counselling sessions to make her "less domineering" in love. The singer has been having one-on-one sessions with a leading rabbi at the Kabbalah centre in New York.

Internationally acclaimed Dutch actress Carice van Houten (Black Book, Valkyrie) visited her therapist after performing in an enduring Dutch tv-show. The interview had lasted four hours, and received a lot of criticism afterwards for being uninteresting, too superficial and not amusing at all. “At first I was proud for having survived. But afterwards their was so much sh** thrown upon us. I was shocked about the emotions it had caused.” Her therapist helped her put it in perspective. And she learned something else: “To never Google yourself. After every nine nice reviews, there’s one nasty one, and that’s the one that gets to you. I now know I have to stop pleasing everyone. I can’t, then I shouldn’t have become famous.”

Actress Eva Mendes: “I’m big on therapy. I’ve always said that I love talking about therapy. Why wait until something goes terrible in your life to start fixing things?”

And then there’s the celebs that don’t believe the hype on therapy at all:

Angelina Jolie: “Therapy? I don't need that. The roles that I choose are my therapy.”

Kanye West, after being asked if he ever considered therapy to cope with the 2007 death of his mother, Donda West: "I don't believe in therapy. I believe you gotta walk it out, you gotta live it out...And sometimes you have to cry it out...I don't believe in medication or painkillers. And I don't believe in religion and giving it all up to Jesus."