“Had we found Orna prior to the idea, we certainly would have thought we would build a series around her,” said producer Josh Kriegman. “But that actually is not the way the series came to be.
“Both of my parents are therapists, which is how the idea came about,” Kriegman went on. “So I grew up very much in the world of therapy and hearing stories growing up just about the kinds of things that happen in a therapist’s office and how dynamic it is and exciting and riveting and compelling.”
Especially since everyone is normally sworn to secrecy about what goes on in such sessions, he said. “We spoke to a lot of therapists in New York and pretty much, and immediately upon speaking to Orna, we were smitten.”
“If you were a couples’ therapist in New York City, we probably spoke to you,” producer Elyse Steinberg said. “We did an insane outreach in New York City for therapists, and I had the pleasure of being the first person to talk to Orna. And I can still remember talking to her and thinking to myself: Oh, my God. This is it. She’s our person.
“We had been doing this massive search, and I just felt like she’s brilliant and she has this quality that we were looking for of connecting with couples and speaking to what we were trying to achieve, which was to show therapy authentically.”