Profile : Talk Show as Therapy : WELCOME TO THE MARILYN KAGAN SHOW--SIT DOWN AND SHARE

These days TV talk-show hosts are not surprised by much. Daily, it seems, they bear witness to guests baring their souls and, in one recent case, the emotional spillage ended in death.

Mindful of the endless parade of emotional topics and the frightening potential of their aftereffects, Marilyn Kagan, one of a handful of daytime’s talk-show hosts, was hardly shocked to see a guest on her show be moved to tears.

But even Kagan was surprised when an audience member came forward tearfully during a show about anorexia nervosa (“My Daughter’s Dying to Be Beautiful”) and admitted in front of more than 80 people that she, too, had an eating disorder.

“How could this be a comfortable place for her to do that?” Kagan, a trained psychotherapist, asked later of a reporter. Then, answering her own question, she explains, “There’s a sense of trust that we’re all going to take care of one another here.”

And it is that sense, according to Kagan, that puts this talk-show host in a class by herself.

“Most shows have to bring in a therapist,” Kagan points out. “It helps to have a host able to do that herself. Sally, Maury, Geraldo, they’re not therapists. I think they can get in over their heads and are not able to think in the way they need to think if they’re going to deal with human problems. ... We don’t take on things we can’t handle. And we have fun. I’m not a staid old psychoanalytic person, but I’m listening every minute in a way that if someone’s underlying pain is there, I’m not going to let it pass.”

Kagan prides herself on providing an open, safe haven for troubled souls that encourages people to freely express themselves.

Still, the 43-year-old Kagan acknowledges it is not always easy to help.

“Getting people to open up before a bevy of cameras is a little tougher than over the phone (on talk radio),” she says. “I think there’s always initially a discomfort that maybe lasts for 3 or 4 minutes, but I feel the more people get to know me they know I won’t ambush them; they’ll be safe. I’ll be direct but I don’t leave people hanging out to dry. I have done treatment for almost 20 years and diagnoses and disorders. Nothing surprises me anymore. I feel that I can respond in a way that’s non-judgmental and non-threatening and I listen in a different way. That’s not to say I’m any genius. It’s just from years of practice.”

Many of the topics on the show, which has moved to late night and will return to 2 p.m. weekdays after the O.J. Simpson trial, are based on issues Kagan grappled with in private practice or larger social problems she confronted as a social worker before becoming a therapist.

One of her favorite recent shows focused on people dealing with substantial weight gain and how it affected their love lives. “I really do, probably more than anything, want to deal with weight issues for women and men,” says Kagan. “I’ve struggled with my own weight since I was a teen-ager and thought I had it under control, but with the stress of work in the past few years my weight has crept up 25 pounds.”

Then, she adds: “I don’t think you have to be fatso to be a talk-show host, but I think it adds a lot when you’ve struggled with these things yourself.”

Some other recent episodes included: “We Broke Up: I Want Him Back,” “My Family Interferes With My Relationships,” “I’m in Love With a Gay Guy” and “Terminally Ill Moms.”

Issues of uppermost concern to Kagan are empowering women in abusive relationships and helping people be good parents. Her favorite group to deal with is teen-agers, harking back to her days as a clinical social worker working with sexually and physically abused young people at the Linden Treatment Center for Abused Teens in Beverly Hills.

Of course, there are the shows that make no attempt to mine serious psychological territory, but are just plain fun, such as “Revenge of the Bimbos.”

Though she is a trained professional, Kagan enjoys a laugh as much as the next person.

“I’m not stuffy,” she says. “I’m kind of a crazy person. I love to step out of the mainstream. It allows people to see me in a different light.”

Kagan admits that the pressure for ratings and the general trend toward sensationalism on daytime talk shows have also infused her show.

“I think it’s always therapeutic in nature, even though it’s also titillating,” Kagan says. “I originally thought you could never be titillating and also therapeutic. But life is titillating.”

However, Kagan says she focuses on emotional matters, citing a program she did recently on teen-age runaways that focused on their loneliness.

Kagan also likes to do what she calls “update shows,” in which she goes back to people interviewed on previous shows and finds out if they took her advice. A trademark Marilynism: “Don’t tell me your story. Talk to your wife/mother/brother.”

Presiding over her own television show has been an adjustment for Kagan, whose KFI radio show is broadcast weeknights from 9 to midnight. “On the radio I run my own ship, so I had to adjust to television, which is a collaborative event. ‘I’m also much more direct on the radio. Because you only have audio and you only have four minutes for each caller. I have to make a lot of judgment calls that I might not make on television.”

Another uncomfortable aspect of being on television for Kagan is the emphasis on appearance. Kagan, who describes herself as “low maintenance,” is not crazy about all the hair styling, makeup and new clothing required.

“I’m kind of this plain Jane,” she says. “My producers say they have to tie me down to the chair. I get a little embarrassed by it, but boy, my mom thinks I look great.”

“Marilyn Kagan” airs Monday through Thursday at midnight and Friday afternoons at 2 on KCAL.