Commentary: A critic does therapy with Phil Stutz, go-to shrink for Jonah Hill and other stars
LOS ANGELES — On a recent morning, while making what I prayed would be a quick run to Target, I received a call from the assistant of Phil Stutz, letting me know that the doctor would be able to see me at 4 p.m. that afternoon.
It’s not every day that the shrink to the stars finds room in his schedule for a plebeian journalist, so I rushed home with my new utensil organizer, ice trays and gigantic package of paper towels and rewatched “Stutz,” the Netflix documentary that Jonah Hill made about his beloved therapist.
Stutz’s name, known for decades among entertainment industry elites, circulated more widely after Dana Goodyear wrote a 2011 New Yorker feature about Stutz’s work and his collaboration with fellow therapist Barry Michels on their book “The Tools: Transform Your Problems Into Courage, Confidence, and Creativity.”
A veteran of psychotherapy, I read the book when it came out in 2012, curious about what the authors call their “spiritual approach to psychology” and wondering if a more action-oriented program might produce results more quickly than my trek through psychoanalysis, which was only just getting started after 12 long years. The book engaged
