The Phil Stutz Method, a moving documentary

Who has not seen the documentary Stutz, from Netflix, you will be missing out on one of the most extraordinary and emotional content on this platform. Actor and director Jonah Hill has created this production as a tribute to his therapist, the person who has offered him the necessary tools to manage his insecurity. We are faced with an audiovisual gift as inspiring as it is revolutionary.

Throughout history, there are many figures who have honored their mental health professionals, those who have changed their lives. An example was the modernist American poet, with the initials HD, who published Homage to Freud to make clear how the father of psychoanalysis helped her when she was most lost.

Jonah Hill, prestigious comedian and two-time Oscar nominee, does more than pay tribute to his psychiatrist. Both invite us to a brave and honest conversation about mental health, vulnerability and human flaws. They are two men united by a very warm and emotional bond, in which, suddenly, it is the therapist himself who becomes a patient, revealing his internal labyrinths…

Phil Stutz is not your average psychiatrist, he swears, he is directive with his patients, he jokes freely and does not hesitate to open up emotionally.

Who is Phil Stutz?

Phil Stutz is the American psychiatrist who has developed one of the most innovative techniques to optimize human potential. In his extensive professional career, he has been the prison psychologist for different penitentiary centers, such as Rikers Island; He has also been one of the most prestigious private psychologists in the Big Apple.

In the 80s he settled in Los Angeles, becoming for some media the “most wanted psychiatrist in Hollywood.” He has helped thousands of writers, artists, producers and CEOs deal with their insecurities, traumas and problems, awakening their creative and healing focus.

On the other hand, If Phil Stutz is known for anything, it is his book The Method: the tools that will activate your inner strength to change your life (2012), written with therapist Barry Michels. In this work they provide an innovative therapeutic approach based on the tools, mechanisms and resources that we can all develop by activating our “higher forces” to solve problems.

The documentary, a tribute that strips souls

In the documentary, Jonah Hill invites us to witness an insightful journey into the mind of his therapist Phil Stutz. At the beginning, we think that the one who will reveal his life will be the actor himself, but at a given moment, we become aware of his true purpose. “I’m making a movie about you, not about me.”. Jonah will not focus only on his problems, but almost all the attention will be focused on his psychiatrist, Phil Stutz.

Hill uses clever cinematographic tricks to develop what seems like a therapy session. He uses black and white to create intimacy and even to produce tenderness, which is evident almost from the first moment of the two protagonists. He is the one who asks most of the questions so that his psychiatrist can introduce us to his method, a solution-based technique that uses card visualization.

Weak pulse and prodigious mind

Phil Stutz suffers from Parkinson’s; We notice this immediately when he grabs one of his famous cards to illustrate his tools. His stroke is shaky and he can barely carry out that technique that has accompanied him throughout his professional life. However, this does not prevent him from providing his techniques and learning to any of us at home.

We can all change our emotional state almost immediately, according to Stutz, by taking unpleasant experiences and thoughts and transforming them into opportunities. But something like this requires strategies, the same ones that have improved the lives of Jonah Hill and hundreds of his patients.

Phil Stutz’s tools

In the book The method we learn that Any psychological or existential crisis is, indeed, an opportunity for personal growth and evolution.. To do this you have to use the “tools”, which activate those internal forces that we all have and that we must develop. Stutz illustrates them in a pedagogical way in the documentary. They are the following:

Reality. We must become aware that Our life will be dominated by three aspects, which are pain, uncertainty and constant work. The last element will allow us to handle the first two.The vital force. There are three forces that define who you are and how it can improve your existence. The first is the relationship with your body, the second is the relationship with people and the last is the relationship with yourself.Part X. We all have a dark area that prevents change, it is that resistance that, like a villain, hinders everything.The pearl necklace. Life can be seen as a necklace with different stones set together. Each stone is an action, they are all the tasks, efforts and activities we do daily. Some will have their dark and imperfect point, but we can always make the next pearl more perfect and beautiful.The kingdom of illusion. According to Stutz, we all focus on achieving perfection. A perfect job, a perfect partner… However, all of this brings us suffering.

An exercise in wonderful vulnerability

The documentary offers a moving reflection on Jonah Hill, the star, and his therapist, Stutz, the psychiatrist who fights against the unstoppable progression of his illness. The first lets us glimpse his problems of anxiety, insecurity, emptiness, shame, his past being overweight and the death of his brother.

Stutz bares his soul before the camera, also talking about the death of his younger brother and that complex relationship with his mother that has limited, in a way, his ability to bond emotionally. He does not hesitate to talk about his illness, about how Parkinson’s goes beyond that trembling in his hands, that rigid body that he fights against every day.

Jonah and Stutz talk about mental health through honesty, vulnerability and love. They are not just a patient and a therapist, they are two friends who share similar stories and who do not hesitate to say “I love you” to each other while joking with each other.

Why are these types of productions necessary?

Stutz’s documentary resonates with us emotionally, it is innovative, warm, reflective as well as fun. It is not a filler product on Netflix, it is a necessary and brave production that we should all discover. It is true that we live in a time in which more and more celebrities are talking about their mental health and that many see it as something that is simply “in fashion.” But it’s not like that…

If we must talk more about psychological problems, it is to eliminate the stigma. We need collective testimonies to understand that we will all, at some point, go through these experiences.

However, on this occasion, and thanks to Jonah Hill, we not only see another star revealing his problems to us. Furthermore, he brings us a psychiatrist capable of sharing tools, while he reveals to us his own problems, sadness and vulnerabilities. Because Not even those who have the knowledge to get us out of our black holes are immune to suffering. of the life.

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