| "Counseling" | |
|---|---|
| The Office episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 7 Episode 2 |
| Directed by | Jeffrey Blitz |
| Written by | B. J. Novak |
| Cinematography by | Matt Sohn |
| Editing by | Claire Scanlon |
| Production code | 7002[1] |
| Original air date | September 30, 2010 |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Guest appearance | |
| |
"Counseling" is the second episode of the seventh season of the American comedy television series The Office and the shows 128th episode overall. It originally aired on NBC on September 30, 2010. The episode was written by B. J. Novak and directed by Jeffrey Blitz. "Counseling" guest stars Eric Zuckerman as a store clerk, Vincent Angelo as a vendor, and Michael Schur as Mose Schrute. Evan Peters also appears as Luke Cooper in archival footage from the previous episode.
The series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. In the episode, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is forced to have six hours of counseling with Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) after he physically reprimanded his nephew Luke (Peters), but Michael refuses to make Toby's job easy. Meanwhile, Pam Halpert (Jenna Fischer) attempts to finagle a promotion to office administrator and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) boycotts the Steamtown Mall after a shop owner refuses to serve him.
"Counseling" received mostly positive reviews from television critics. The episode was viewed by 7.36 million viewers and received a 3.7 rating among adults between the age of 18 and 49, marking a significant drop in the ratings when compared to the previous week. Despite this, the episode was the highest-rated NBC series of the night that it aired, as well as the highest-rated non-sports NBC broadcast for the week it aired.