Within the depth-psychology corpus, ‘therapy’ is not a monolithic concept but a contested field of competing epistemologies, each staking distinct claims about the nature of healing, the therapeutic relationship, and the proper ends of psychological work. Yalom’s group-psychotherapy tradition locates transformative power in the interpersonal social microcosm — the group as laboratory for honest relational encounter — and insists that cognitive restructuring must accompany catharsis lest gains remain confined to the consulting room. Hillman’s archetypal psychology radically challenges teleological assumptions, refusing to name individuation or wholeness as therapy’s goal, preferring instead a soul-time that resists linear termination. Moore extends this soul-centered critique, recasting therapy as ongoing ‘care of the soul’ rather than symptom removal, privileging empathic storytelling over heroic cure. Levine warns against catharsis as therapeutic dead end, while Lanius and Courtois situate trauma therapy within a phased, body-attuned model that must negotiate dissociation, stabilization, and mentalization. Expressive approaches — art, bouldering, sandplay, nature-assisted intervention — expand the field further, each backed by emerging evidence bases. Across all strands runs the question that gives the term its permanent tension: whether therapy is a technical procedure applied to disorders, a relational encounter that transforms both parties, or a cultural-spiritual practice of soul-tending that no manual can fully contain.