You know, the one where Morpheus gives Neo a choice about whether he could take the Blue Pill or the Red Pill and delivers a little monologue about what it means.

Watching it, I realized this scene (and The Matrix in general) is a great cinematic metaphor for therapy.

To learn why, keep reading.

Red Pill, or the Blue pill? Why therapy is a lot like The Matrix.

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I’m offering is the truth, nothing more.” – Morpheus to Neo

Often, in my work as a therapist I get asked iterations of questions like these:

“Why would I want to do therapy if it’s going to feel so uncomfortable? Why should I talk and think about my past – yeah, I know it was bad but I just want to move forward. Why do you write about such depressing things on your blog?”

They’re fair and reasonable questions and believe me, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that going to therapy or the topics I write about on my blog may not be for everyone.

But, for others, it’s possible that therapy or reading about complex therapeutic topics, can be powerful and transformative.

I believe that therapy or supporting yourself through reading therapeutic material, can be uncomfortable, yes, but it can also help you see more clearly and perhaps live more freely.

For example, you may have trauma, pain, and challenges in your life that you haven’t faced but yet are nevertheless impacting you in your everyday life.

Issues, perhaps, like constantly picking the “wrong” person over and over again as a romantic partner; or feeling a deep sense of depression despite everything “looking good on paper”; or even a lack of self-esteem that keeps you from asking for the raise you deserve or the launching the business you dream of.

All of these issues may be the kinds of “symptoms” you may want to address in therapy.

But what you may not know is that the roots of these symptoms may be deep and old and that you may have to go back in time and face memories and parts of yourself that you’ve repressed or distorted in order to transform and heal those symptoms.

So in this way, when we decide that we want to change our lives and when we begin the unearthing, exploratory work of therapy to help resolve present-day symptoms, it can be a bit like going down the proverbial rabbit hole to “Wonderland” – it’s a journey that you may not know where it will take you, how it will end, or if it will end.