Michael Urie Says Therapy Is a Part of His 'Forever Journey' Thanks to His Role on “Shrinking” (Exclusive)

Urie stars in the AppleTV+ series as Brian, the best friend of Jason Segel's character Jimmy

Michael Urie has his role on Shrinking to thank for helping him to start therapy.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE about the upcoming second season of the hit Apple TV+, the actor, 44, candidly shared how Shrinking kicked off his own mental health journey. The series stars Jason Segel as Jimmy Laird, a grieving therapist who begins to break the rules by telling his clients exactly what he thinks.

"It was really fun," Urie jokes, opening up about his journey into starting therapy. "I know, it's such a funny... But I enjoyed it. I have enjoyed going to therapy and deepening my relationship to my own mental health."

"The show is so, I think, careful and yet reckless with mental health," he continues. "And it's like, I think that's the right attitude. I think at once, yes, we should all be exploring it, we should all be open to it. We should not be ashamed of our mental healthcare."

As the Broadway star puts it, he's also learned that mental health is both scientific and also very emotional at the same time — something that those going to therapy have to learn the hard way.

"It is a science, there is a science to mental health, but feelings and emotions is, I don't think that's scientific. I think that we come to our own ways. And as much as I like to think my therapist can give me all the answers, the truth is it's just a part of it," he adds.

For Urie — who stars in the show as Jimmy's best friend Brian — therapy has just been "one part" of his longer journey to learn about and care for himself.

"It's just one part of my forever journey of figuring my own heart and brain out," he says. "So it's been a journey. It's been at times frustrating, at times fun, at times confusing, just like the show, the same ways that...the show continues to deal with new mental health issues."

"We get into Brian's narcissism in this season, which is a really complicated one," Urie continues. "That one, especially to play someone who is called a narcissist is interesting and hard because you can't really tell a narcissist that they're a narcissist."

Elsewhere in his conversation with PEOPLE, Urie speaks about what's in store for Brian, along with the rest of the Shrinking crew — for season 2. The normalization of mental health discussions remains a main theme, he says, but the cast of characters also gets the opportunity to explore their roles in this big "chosen family."

"Chosen family thing is big in season 2, and I love the chosen family aspect of the show, and of life," he says. "... Certainly for me, as a queer person and as somebody who moved away from his hometown, anybody who leaves their hometown is eventually going to find their own new chosen family."

"And we find new chosen families for all kinds of reasons, not just because our actual family isn't there for us, for whatever reason, but they can be proximity, it can be some kind of divide, can be that they're no longer with us. And this show has all of those things," Urie continues. "We find each other as a chosen family for all kinds of reasons that we can't go to our actual family.

"I love that we normalize that and show, for better or worse, what chosen family can look like," he finishes.

Related: Shrinking Season 2 Gets Premiere Date as Jason Segel, Harrison Ford Return for More Therapy and Adventures

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Along with Urie and Segel, Harrison Ford, Luke Tennie, Lukita Maxwell, Christa Miller and Ted McGinley are all set to return for the show's second series, according to an announcement from Apple TV+ in August.

On Aug. 5, Apple TV+ revealed the first look at season 2 of Shrinking, and announced that the comedy series starring Segel, Ford and Jessica Williams will return with the first two episodes on Wednesday, Oct. 16.

"Ignoring his training and ethics, [Segel] finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes to people's lives...including his own," the streamer writes in Shrinking's logline.

Season 2 will consists of 12 episodes in total. After the first two episodes are released on Oct. 16, one new episode will be released each week through Wednesday, Dec. 25.

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