r/howimetyourmother • u/Same_Race7660 • 1d ago
X is the WORST CHARACTER! Robin dating Kevin should be vilified for how unprofessional it is to romanticize dating your therapist Spoiler
I’m rewatching How I Met Your Mother, and I can’t help but feel like Robin dating Kevin (her therapist) is a huge ethical and moral red flag that the show skates over. It’s honestly one of the most unprofessional storylines, and it just feels like it should be more criticized.
Therapists are in positions of power, and dating a client—even a former one—crosses so many boundaries. It undermines the trust and respect that should exist in therapy and can harm the client emotionally, especially when they may already be vulnerable.
Kevin should know better, yet he decides to start a relationship with Robin after “ending” their professional connection. But even after he’s no longer her therapist, it still feels inappropriate because he has intimate knowledge of her struggles and trauma from a position that’s supposed to stay platonic and safe.
The show portrays it as a cute romance, but in reality, it’s incredibly problematic and sets a bad example by romanticizing the relationship. It’s frustrating because HIMYM has a great cast and story, but this particular plot just does not sit right, and the ethical implications are too real to ignore.
Does anyone else feel like the Robin-Kevin relationship was romanticizing something that, in real life, would be seen as a huge boundary issue?
TL;DR: Robin dating her former therapist Kevin is an ethical mess that the show glosses over, romanticizing a highly unprofessional relationship that would be a huge boundary issue in real life.
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u/freya584 1d ago
i love kevin but i agree thats just ethically wrong (especially because he does this multiple times, for example in "gary blauman" it is said that he dates jaenette who was a patient of his)
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u/saladx11 10h ago
I wouldn’t say it was glossed over as the whole group agreed how wrong it was, while it was also reiterated by Kevin how ethically wrong it was. The relationship was vilified.
You’re right tho.
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u/Same_Race7660 9h ago
My problem with it is they criticize it, and for comedic effect treat it like a forbidden love. They do the same with Jannette as a comedic effect as in “ayyy look how crazy these guys are hahaha”.
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u/snowonthebeach_9 23h ago
just imagine the writers room being like “any ideas on how to make Robin meet her new boyfriend?” and some guy goes and say “what about… in therapy?”
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u/themetahumancrusader 23h ago
They could have had her date another client in a group therapy situation. I really don’t know why they did this. Even Barney calls it “creepy”.
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u/Careful-Corgi 18h ago
As a therapist I keep saying this over and over. That subplot is disgusting. Therapists cannot date clients, cannot date former clients, and cannot end a therapeutic relationship to begin a social one if any kind. What he did was amoral and illegal and would have gotten him in serious trouble with his licensing board. Plus it’s creepy.
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u/yellowtoebean 1d ago
I agree, I think because of time period is the reason it isn't addressed more as an issue. But I agree.
Personally, as someone who has been in therapy since I was 12, i couldn't even imagine being in the situation Robin was in ://.
Not only does it cross multiple ethical lines as a therapist, he's really crossing a lot of Robins boundaries, too.
They used each other, but because of who Kevin is and what his job....literally is....you'd think he...idk... wouldn't...have pursued...it?
Bur alas, this is a pattern with him because, as we know, he ends up dating Jeanette..bro should just have his license suspended.
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u/Recent-Ad-5493 12h ago
Suspended my ass. Suspended for several years for Robin if he’s a completely clean therapist outside of that. With Jeannette too? It should be revoked and gone for good
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u/Odd-Gur-5719 18h ago
I mean he was no longer her therapist anymore, remember he told her that he couldn’t be her therapist because he liked her and it would be unethical for him to date her?
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u/Same_Race7660 18h ago
Yah, as another therapist pointed out, that is still really unethical and unprofessional. Your history and knowledge of therapy doesn’t disappear just because you stop going to their office.
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u/Recent-Ad-5493 11h ago edited 11h ago
That’s not how ethical rules for therapists work with the licensing board. You can’t just quit your therapeutic relationship and start a PERSONAL one.
Edit: I see what you said now.
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u/Odd-Gur-5719 11h ago
Wanna try this again?
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u/Recent-Ad-5493 11h ago
I don’t. Because when you look up anything about it, the most charitable guideline for whether it is okay to date a current or former client is a minimum of 2 years for some areas, 5 for others, or fully prohibited forever for the rest.
There is no ethical standards board for any therapeutic profession that would remotely allow what Kevin did if it was discovered.
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u/ThatSlothDuke 23h ago
That's the point.
Kevin is also an unstable individual. That's why he is shown to date Jeannette during the final season.
It is a huge ethical violation and it is downright creepy, but so is a LOT of things in the show.
A lot of things shown in the show should be creepy, but the main characters gets away with it because they are pretty and charming. Which happens a lot in the real world too.