Health Beyond the Blog: Apple TV’s Ted Lasso

“Ted Lasso” portrays the strengths of leaning on your community for kindness and support.

by Kimberly Yang

In an era when burnout, loneliness, and anxiety reign, Ted Lasso feels less like a sitcom and more like a wellness intervention. In the Emmy-winning series, American football coach Ted Lasso is hired to coach a struggling Premier League soccer team to success despite knowing nothing about soccer. Across its three-season run, Ted Lasso is a stellar representation of positive psychology, therapy, and mental health.

Ted initially appears as someone who is full of relentless, almost unbelievable positivity. Ted effortlessly deflects skepticism from the press and players, as well as hostility from fans with kindness and good cheer. However, his effusive personality masks his private battles with anxiety and panic attacks. During a soccer match, Ted experiences a panic attack on the field and has to rush off. Recognizing his vulnerable situation, he seeks help from the team psychologist.

Later, a colleague leaks Ted’s struggles to the press, thinking that people would react badly to a Premier League coach with mental health struggles. When questioned about it, Ted does not brush it off or try to cover it up. Instead, he readily admits to having panic attacks and expresses his support for mental health wellness and care. The show destigmatizes therapy, as well as emotional honesty, with intelligent storytelling and humorous delivery. Ted’s mental health journey is an example of the importance of mental health and the need to have open conversations about it.

Other characters around Ted experience their own mental and emotional health struggles. Rebecca, the team’s new owner, is recently divorced and facing the challenges of the heavily male-dominated field of soccer club ownership. Roy, a veteran player, struggles with the end of his career. Jamie, a young star, has trouble with his self-worth beyond fame. Each of these characters navigates and makes progress in their respective struggles with the steadfast support of their friends and colleagues, illustrating a well-studied concept in health—strong social support networks can act as a buffer for stress and improve mental health outcomes. In addition, Ted’s interactions with the team psychologist frame therapy as collaborative and humanized rather than a purely clinical practice.

Although Ted’s positivity seems over-the-top at times and is often met by incredulity, he is always fully sincere. His coaching philosophy is heavily based on positive psychology, emphasizing gratitude, humor, and empathy as behaviors that enhance resilience, which correlates directly with his players’ performances and mental health.

The show emphasizes strong community networks, genuine human connection, empathy, and positive psychology and how these qualities can punch through the hate and malevolence, all too common, in society today. With its intelligent, heartwarming storytelling, Ted Lasso quietly urges us all to begin creating a culture like Ted’s.

Ted Lasso is available to stream on Apple TV.