The Secret Life of the American Teenager

This week we will be focusing on the ABCFamily show, The Secret Life of the American Teenager.  For those of you who are not familiar with the show, it is a show about a group of teenagers and their families living in a further out suburb of Los Angeles.  The show started out primarily revolving around the character of Amy Juergens, but has since expanded to place more focus on other characters.  During Season 1, Amy became pregnant at band camp by a boy who also attended her high school, Ricky Underwood.  Amy was only 15 and a freshman in high school at the time, so the show looks at her struggle of being a pregnant teen, and in the later seasons, her struggle to be a teen mother.
Ricky has a very dark past, both of his parents have been in and out of jail throughout his childhood.  When we meet him he is living with foster parents, who have been his only constant adult figures in life.  Ricky's parents were both addicted to drugs, and his father sexually abused him for years.  Ricky engages in a lot of acting out behaviors, but his primary behavior is being extremely promiscuous.  He tends to use girls and then have nothing to do with them after, which is what would have happened with Amy had she not gotten pregnant.  Here is Ricky when he first met Amy at band camp:

In an attempt to cope with his past as well as deal with his acting out behaviors, Ricky sees a therapist, Dr. Fields (who happens to be the father of one of Amy's best friends.)  At one point in the show, Ricky goes out with Dr. Fields's daughter, and when he finds out this happened, he comes to the school to confront Ricky, revealing to the students that Ricky is a patient of his.  This makes everyone in the school assume Ricky has a serious mental health condition, and damages his reputation in the school.  He also agrees to see Ricky and his girlfriend at the time, Adrian, in a joint session, where he uses techniques and provides advice that is not overly conducive to two 16-year-olds. 
In the sessions shown between Ricky and Dr. Fields, he never attempts to discuss how the abuse has impacted him, what symptoms he may be having or that could be causing his acting out behavior, or how any of this is affecting his role as a father.  While Ricky may not have a concrete DSM-IV diagnosis, he clearly has a great deal of anger in his life, and none of this ever seems to be discussed or focused on in session.
Dr. Fields also appears to have ignored other aspects of the APA Ethics code, particularly in the realm of dual relationships.  Amy's parents go through the process of divorcing in Season 1, only to get back together in Season 2.  In the Season 2 episode "Let's Try That Again" Anne (Amy's mother) asks George (Amy's father) to please go to couples therapy with her to work on their relationship before they remarry.  George is extremely resistant to therapy and believes he does not need to tell a stranger his problems, but remembers that Amy's friend's father is in fact, a therapist.  However, George does not want to go to therapy, so he asks Dr. Fields to go out to dinner with him instead.  After their dinner meeting, he agrees to attend couples therapy.  While watching this I could not believe that Dr. Fields would accept them as clients considering they knew each other well because of their daughters, and that he and George had just had dinner together, which is in violation of the dual-relationship aspect of the Ethics code. 
Overall, I was not very impressed with the show's portrayal of therapy.  The writers made it appear that you can go to one session and gain outstanding, permanent results and whatever problems exist in a relationship will be magically resolved.  They also did not discuss how therapy can be used to treat certain issues, particularly in Ricky's case.  As of midway through Season 2, it appears Ricky has been magically "cured" and no longer attends therapy, despite his many issues with anger and his still conflicted relationships and feelings with his parents.  I think the show could have done a much better job portraying therapy, particularly because it tends to be aimed at a teen/young adult audience who could most likely benefit from knowing more about the therapeutic process.