Effective treatment for perfectionism requires addressing the underlying emotional needs for worth and belonging through a therapeutic alliance rather than relying on cognitive exercises.

“it's about dealing with those deeper issues about worth and about belongingness and connectedness with others. So in the therapy that we do with perfection, we don't really talk about perfectionism very much at all.”

He claims that therapists on the show Shrinking use a practical approach of telling patients exactly what to do in their daily lives, which he views as wish fulfillment for patients.

“Yeah, I think that the approach that um the therapists that shrinking is based on have is that people actually want to be told what to do. And so unlike some other therapies, they're like, "Listen, we will get to the bottom of this. Like, we'll get to the why over months and months, but people want ”