Notes On… Inside Out

I love Inside Out. Like, love it. Pixar really outdid itself with this one, crafting a film that isn’t just entertainment—it’s a beautifully accurate, deeply insightful look at how emotions work. As a therapist, I can’t tell you how often I reference this movie in sessions. It takes complex psychological concepts and distills them into something accessible, profound, and (let’s be honest) tear-jerkingly relatable.

At its core, Inside Out is about emotional integration—learning that all of our emotions, even the uncomfortable ones, serve a purpose. Joy may be the bubbly, sunshine-soaked leader, but by the end of the film, we realize something crucial: Sadness is just as important. It’s the moment Riley allows herself to feel her sadness that real healing begins. If that’s not a perfect metaphor for therapy, I don’t know what is.

So often, clients come in wanting to “get rid of” painful emotions—anger, grief, fear, loneliness. But just like in Inside Out, our goal isn’t to erase emotions; it’s to understand them, to let them coexist. Joy without sadness isn’t real joy—it’s performance. Healing doesn’t happen by pushing emotions away; it happens by learning to make space for all of them.

The movie also nails another therapeutic truth: our core memories shape us. We see Riley’s memories evolve, her islands of personality shift, and her worldview expand. That’s therapy in action—untangling old narratives, understanding how they’ve shaped us, and building new emotional landscapes.

I wish every kid, every adult, every human could watch this movie and walk away knowing that all emotions are valid and none of them make you weak. That’s what I hope clients take from therapy, too. We don’t choose which emotions show up, but we can choose how we make room for them. And sometimes, embracing our sadness is the bravest thing we can do.