OK - So this is probably so obvious it should be obvious, but thought I'd see what people say. My pdoc has challeneged me to define what therapy is - what therapists do - and what we're trying to accomplish in therapy. (He loves to challenge me and I always bite. I appreciate that he questions everything because it makes me have to think for myself.) He said that some study said that just talking to a good intimate friend weekly has the same results as therapy. I think that could be true in some cases depending on the need. What is it about therapy that takes it beyond that though. I found that I couldn't immediately answer him, but this is what I eventually came up with.

Some of my thoughts:
What does a therapist do? They assist you in recognizing behaviors and thoughts that no longer serve you and assist you in replacing them with better alternatives. They call your attention to what you do and assist you in becoming consciously aware of it so you can choose to act instead of being acted upon. They guide you in building a life better suited to yourself. They assist you in coping with things. They support you so you can grow. They provide a safe atmosphere where you can experiment and relearn and recover. They assist you in seeing yourself. They call you on your stuff and hold you accountable in an appropriate way. Yes, this can sometimes be done by someone other than a therapist – but in day to day life it is uncommon to find someone willing to put that much time into another person and who is that concerned with another’s welfare. And it is uncommon to be able to spend that kind of intensive time with someone regularly and consistently enough in a focused way. It is not a casual thing and it requires trust. So we pay someone to act as our proxy, someone who we hope can see more clearly than ourselves and open our understanding. Someone who can help us heal past wounds because they have been through the same and have experience we do not. Someone who has a game plan and will encourage us to make the changes we want to make when our courage fails us.

How would you define it? What would you say?