This Is Why Bucky Has A Different Therapist In My Fic Series, Because The One Mandated To Him In Tfatws

this is why Bucky has a different therapist in my fic series, because the one mandated to him in tfatws was making him worse and she was not only grossly unprofessional and at times smugly cruel to him, but it was a crushing sign that marvel really only cares about depicting mental health journeys when it's Tony.

Tony's issues stemmed from a completely different place than Bucky's so their arcs cannot be written with the same angle, yet they are.

Tony's journey was rightfully about atonement because his sins were his own making, he chose to do what he did prior to reforming. Bucky is completely different, same as characters like Natasha and Gamora; Bucky does not need to atone for anything because he was as much a victim as those he was made to kill.

I always hated the gag about the "notebook thing" because Bucky's spent decades seeing hundreds of abusive strangers scribble down notes about him that he was never permitted to see or have disclosed to him, never knowing if those notes would lead to more agony or "just" being frozen again. He was placed under a huge amount of dehumanizing scrutiny with zero disclosure or consent, and it's horrific that his THERAPIST identified that trigger and used it as a power play over him....

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Since it came up recently, link to that therapist on twitter 👆 who was discussing Bucky’s terribile therapist in TFATWS and how they should’ve been. 

Transcript:

“As a therapist myself I’ve had a lot of feelings about Bucky’s therapist on TFatWS, and have decided I need to rant a little to let it all out. I’ve worked w/active duty, trauma survivors, and court ordered clients, so here’s some therapeutic conjecture on Bucky’s therapy:

Aesthetically her office and presentation don’t fit for someone who has been through the trauma that he’s been through. A client like this would need something non-threatening and safe- the whole vibe is overly formal and official in an office building, not at all therapeutic.

6 months working together she calls him Mr. Barnes and then James-he has identity issues and is struggling with who he is, so I think that one of the 1st things they would have done is figure out what he is comfortable being called, by whom and what that means for him.

He is still full out lying to her about pretty much everything including PTSD sx—I’m not saying clients never lie if they have good therapists, but if after 6 months he still doesn’t feel like he can be truthful at all then they haven’t built any trust/ solid therapeutic rapport

The pen and notebook thing-that’s clearly a trigger for him, there’s no reason to antagonize him and take notes in session like a punishment, it’s a power play on her part and it only emphasizes his lack of control in being forced into therapy (she should know his hx w/notebooks)

The whole little arm motion she made when she said “they need to make sure you don’t…” – that made so much light of what has happened to him, he probably feels like his arm is only good as a weapon and things like that will not help him accept it as part of his body

The rules, UGH the rules—from how they were talking about them clearly not something he actively created for himself, more like directives that he’s been ordered to adhere to—something fed to him and reinforced, feels like a way to sign off on liability only

THE AMENDS—this is probably my biggest issue. Amends are for people who need to take accountability for their actions and the repercussions of those choices. He had NO choice. He was a victim of horrific crimes against him, and framing it in a way that he needs to make up for

the crimes that others used him for is abhorrent. The lack of trauma informed care as astounding in the way it is being framed that he has to atone for sins that weren’t his. Its clearly reinforcing the idea in his head in ep 2 when he says “HYDRA were my people”.

NO, HYDRA were your captors. They were not your people. That type of thinking needs to get deconstructed and challenged. He can dedicate himself to bringing good into the world and righting wrongs that happened WITHOUT taking on the responsibility of those actions.

Her whole attitude and demeanor were condescending and demeaning. I know some people have said “I love how she calls him out on his bullshit!” That’s not what I see happening. I call my clients out on their shit all the time—this was not that.

And I can only do that with clients ONCE we’ve built the type of relationship where it’s going to be therapeutic for them to hear it, and it’s done intentionally and with purpose. She just came off shaming and mean because they don’t seem to have any form of therapeutic rapport.

She said “you have no history, no family”- there is no therapeutic reason for that, and she’s wrong. He most likely has family alive (he used current tense when talking about his sister) and he was close to Shuri and TChalla, his history is vital to understanding him

When she said “Look, I know that you have been through a lot, but you’ve got your mind back. You are being pardoned. These are good things. You’re free.”—Yeah this feels really dismissive and like toxic positivity. “I know you’ve been through a lot BUT BE HAPPY!!??”

He certainly doesn’t seem to feel like he’s free (especially having therapy mandated), and you can’t just tell someone they’re free. I felt like she was pretty much just like, “shake it off, look to the future!” which feels really shitty when you’ve experienced excessive trauma.

HELLO breach of confidentiality, just introducing herself to Sam as his therapist and confirming it to Walker and the whole police station, it doesn’t matter if they know he’s in therapy you do not break someone’s privacy like that, he still deserves some control over his tx.

Ordering Sam into a session, NO, he’s not your client and you don’t know him well enough to know if that’s appropriate or if it would be harmful to either, and you haven’t asked your client for his consent to have another person in his session

Forcing a trauma victim who was stripped of his bodily autonomy for 70 years into a physically intimate exercise with a coworker that he’s barely interacted with in the last several months? NOPE, just reinforcing to Bucky she has control over him the way his handlers used to

To me, I think she is more focused on signing off on his psychological eval that he isn’t a liability rather than any actual healing or attention to his trauma. This unfortunately isn’t unusual in the military where “mental health treatment” is focused on being mission ready.

They are making sure he’s ready to be an “asset” w/ mandated therapy, which he shouldn’t even be forced to do as part of his pardon because he shouldn’t have needed a pardon at all because he was a victim of horrific war crimes, brainwashing, and dehumanization for 70 years.

I’m just saying, if that was me he would be on my big squishy couch, bright open windows, bowl of Hershey kisses, random fidget toys, and two therapy dogs laying all over him while we work through that trauma and he builds back his identity and finds the calm he wants so badly.

And yes he would probably need someone who would see through his BS, call him out when he needs it, not be overly “touchy feely”, but only if he feels safe and there is trust, where he gets to work on what HE wants, not what others think he needs.

Anyway thanks for coming to my TEDTalk, I❤️my work and I think being a therapist on retainer for the Avengers would’ve been a fucking trip, they all needed a team of mental health professionals at their disposal 24/7 and things would’ve been so much better🤣

ps. They can be a good therapist and just not be a fit for the client, that happens regularly. We know when to make it part of the conversation and when to refer out. Nothing good is going to come out of a contemptuous therapeutic relationship, mandated or not.

pps. That whole situation and the scene with Zemo was so rough. I can’t imagine how much it brought back the violation, humiliation, anger, and helplessness of when he was the WS. I’m just imagining him having a therapist he trusts and being able to process that afterwards 😭😭😭"

I've now seen a fair few posts about Bucky's change in appearance and seen people offer up in-universe explanations such as it's first time in his entire life he's been getting consistent food and water etc. I need to say one thing.

I find it abhorrent that people feel the need to critique/comment on the body of a real life person considering all we now know of what these super cut beefy actors go through (which btw includes extreme dehydration which is life threatening) just so a movie can have a "sexy shirtless scene" and what Sebastian Stan has said in the past about his body dysmorphia. And in the context of Bucky as a character, it's disgusting considering he spent almost a century with no autonomy over what he looks like or what he did with his time, he's not cattle to judge.

So yeah we can think up all the in universe explanations we like and post the most backhanded compliments in support of him, but the thing is we shouldn't be commenting at all. This isn't like what they did with Thor where it was part of a poor taste storyline and a costume that Hemsworth donned, this is a real person's body and after the horrible treatment the late Chadwick Boseman received for his body's changes undergoing treatment, I would've hoped people had learned that even "complimentary" comments about body weight changes can be inappropriate and unwelcome. Just don't say anything?? It's so easy to shut up.

I'm gonna hyperventilate that's fucking hilarious, diolch yn fawr iawn my friend

Okay but what if Bucky gets found out by HYDRA and Zola after capture because Dugan and Gabe are always ushering him to the back away from possible notice, to the point it backfires and draws suspicion. When they pick him out HYDRA orders him to recite the Lord's Prayer and Bucky recites what he always remembers Steve saying. The Prayer he made sure to remember before he was shipped out just in case something like this happened.

Only... Steve is Catholic. The Prayer that Bucky's heard Steve and some of his fellow soldiers recite is different from the one a Protestant would recite and his dog tags say he's a Protestant. He didn't even know they said the Prayer differently.

I think even Walker would hate that racist smear considering his wife Olivia and child are mixed race, and his best friend was a black man who meant so much to him he went completely off the rails when Lemar was killed

If you’re gonna ship B*lly H*rgr*ve with anyone may I suggest him: 

I don't go here but I'm calling it now that Joe Locke's character can't say his name is because names have power especially if you're the demiurge, and the moment he does Wanda across the universes will hear it and use it like a homing beacon

Is it just me or does no one seem to remember that Bucky is an orphan? It's not even on the fandom wikis. I don't just mean the comics but in the MCU too, Bucky's always been an orphan, it's even mentioned in an interview. It paints him being the eldest of four and his protectiveness of Steve in a new light and generally how good Bucky is with kids too. The guy has serious "big brother who had to become a parent to his younger siblings" energy