This is a topic to turn over again and again. Are therapists healthcare providers? We sure use a lot of language that sounds medical. We talk about symptoms and their treatment. We sometimes refer to people in therapy as patients. Many of us accept health insurance, which comes with diagnosis.
We call this the medical model, and it can be helpful. It can help define goals and the scope of therapy. If it wasn’t medical, insurance wouldn’t cover it, and this can mean the difference between having access to therapy or not.
But where does this leave the rest of the human experience? What about Spirituality? Culture? Your place in society? Therapy touches on these things, but they are not medical. What about that fundamental human experience: having the foreknowledge of our deaths? You do not need to be sick, or even disordered, to fear the inevitable. So what are we when we work in this arena? Are we providing healthcare, or something else entirely?