Prince Harry thinks there’s an “immense” difference in how therapy is viewed in California and the UK.
The 37-year-old royal has discussed the issue with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman on the latest episode of his ‘Masters of Scale’ podcast, with Harry – who now lives in California – suggesting that Brits ought to be more open-minded about having therapy sessions.
Reid initially said: “As a born and raised Californian myself, we would tell jokes. ‘Hey, my therapist will talk to your therapist,’ as a way of building a connection. I’m aware that that is a very Californian perspective.”
Harry – who has Archie, two, and Lilibet, ten months, with the Duchess of Sussex – has witnessed a distinctly different attitude since he relocated to the US in 2020.
He shared: “You’re absolutely right, Reid, about the cultural differences, they’re immense. You talk about it here in California, ‘I’ll get my therapist to call your therapist.’ Whereas in the UK it’s like, ‘Therapist? What therapist? Whose therapist? I don’t have a therapist. No, I definitely don’t, I’ve never spoken to a therapist.'”
Harry previously discussed his own experience of therapy.
He explained: “I am one of the first people to recognise that firstly, I had a fear of – when I first went to therapy – a fear of losing.
“It was meeting and being with Meghan, I knew that if I didn’t do therapy and fix myself, that I was going to lose this woman who I could see spending the rest of my life with.”
Harry thinks therapy has actually encouraged him to “take on anything” in life.
He said: “You’ve sometimes got to go back and to deal with really uncomfortable situations and to be able to process it in order to be able to heal. For me, therapy has equipped me to be able to take on anything.”