Therapist = Artist

The Shared Precarity of Creativity and Care

I have always thought of therapy as an art form. I suppose that’s why I am drawn to the ways of working in therapy that I am. Recently I was reading through Metalabel’s Anonymous Creative Futures Report which is a survey that takes the temperature of how artists are doing in the midst of all the challenges they are facing in the new year. As I was going through the report for a post I’m doing for the OC Art Blog, I found the challenges these artists are facing are not much different than the challenges that therapists and therapy are facing in 2025. While writing I discovered that if you substitute artist with therapist throughout the report, a striking parallel emerges, both professions are caught in a moment of deep uncertainty, grappling with economic precarity, algorithmic influence, AI disruption, and the search for meaningful human connection.

“What was solid yesterday feels uncertain tomorrow.”

This refrain from the Anonymous Creative Futures Report captures more than just the anxieties of contemporary artists—it speaks just as profoundly to the dilemmas faced by therapists today. At their core, both art and therapy are about creating space for transformation. Both are intimate, relational acts, yet increasingly find themselves pressured to conform to market-driven forces. Both are now struggling against platform dependency, the erosion of craft, and the dilution of deep, intentional work in an economy that rewards speed, scale, and surface-level engagement.

So, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to see what therapists might learn from these artists? And what happens when we recognize that our futures—creative and therapeutic—are intertwined?

The Digital Exodus: Platform Fatigue in Therapy & Art

Artists have become wary of social media’s extractive nature, questioning whether algorithmic visibility is worth the loss of autonomy and depth. Therapists face the same dilemma. While online platforms offer accessibility, they also reduce therapy to content snippets, self-help slogans, performative expertise and performative activism designed for engagement and clout rather than depth.

Key Parallels:

• Artists worry about algorithmic distribution vs. human curation. Therapists experience the same with the rise of TikTok therapy, AI chatbots, and “therapist influencers” flattening complex work into digestible soundbites.

• Artists are leaving Instagram in search of more meaningful, intimate spaces. Therapists, too, are looking beyond social media and questioning whether clinical work can thrive in a space designed for clicks rather than connection.

Anonymous Creative Futures Report Voice:
"The internet was supposed to be a commons for knowledge-sharing and empowerment, but it has become commoditized beyond recognition."

Therapist Parallel:
"Therapy was supposed to be about deep, meaningful conversations, but it is increasingly reduced to a productivity hack, a mental health brand, or a trendy framework for self-optimization."

What’s Next?
Just as artists are reclaiming physical spaces and direct human interaction, therapists may need to move toward smaller, slower, non-algorithmic ways of working, emphasizing real-world relationships over digital validation.

AI & the Devaluation of Human Creativity & Care

Artists fear that AI is devaluing creative labor. Therapists face a similar existential crisis: will therapy be replaced by AI-driven mental health apps, chatbots, and predictive models? (See my piece on this here) The industry is already being reshaped by AI-based diagnosis, text-based therapy, and “smart” mental health platforms—but at what cost?

Key Parallels:

• Artists worry about AI as a tool vs. AI as a threat. Therapists wrestle with AI-generated interventions, scripted responses, and the erosion of the therapeutic relationship into something that can be automated.

• Artists express concern over creativity being reduced to algorithmic patterns. Therapists face evidence-based manualization, where therapy is streamlined into predictable steps that can be replicated, scaled, and automated.

Anonymous Creative Futures Report Voice:
"Creation will always have to make the case for humanity. The public will not value art because 'they can do it themselves' with AI."

Therapist Parallel:
"The future of therapy will require defending human presence, deep listening, and the unpredictable, emergent nature of relational work—things that AI cannot replicate."

What’s Next?
Therapists, like artists, must insist on the irreplaceable value of the human experience—not as an outdated relic, but as the core of what makes therapy (and art) transformative.

The Community Turn: Therapy & Art as Collective Practices

One of the most hopeful trends in the Anonymous Creative Futures Report is a return to small-scale, community-based creative collaboration. Artists are tired of individualized career models that pit them against each other in a zero-sum economy. Instead, they are forming mutual aid networks, artist-run spaces, and cooperative structures.

The same is happening in therapy. The traditional model of the solo therapist in private practice is being questioned. There is a growing recognition that mutual support, peer learning, and de-privatizing therapy may be the way forward.

Key Parallels:

• Artists are rejecting institutional control vs. grassroots organizing. Therapists are exploring community-led mental health models that don’t rely on insurance-driven care.

• Artists are shifting from competitive survival to mutual aid. Therapists, too, are asking: how do we build sustainable, non-extractive ways of practicing?

Anonymous Creative Futures Report Voice:
"Mutual aid networks and peer-to-peer collaboration will become increasingly critical for the survival of artists."

Therapist Parallel:
"The future of therapy will require moving beyond individualistic models toward shared, cooperative approaches to care."

What’s Next?
Both artists and therapists are rethinking how to practice without burning out, how to make a living without selling out, and how to create spaces of depth and care outside of extractive systems.

The Broken Economics of Care & Creativity

The economic reality for artists is bleak—only 13.7% can make a living from their work, and 85% earn under $25,000. Therapy is facing a similar crisis. The rise of low-paying teletherapy platforms, insurance-driven metrics, and the burnout economy has made it increasingly difficult for therapists to survive.

Key Parallels:

• Artists experience scarcity vs. abundance. Therapists struggle with burnout culture vs. sustainable work.

• Artists are questioning traditional funding models. Therapists are questioning insurance-driven care, bureaucratic oversight, and the privatization of mental health by private equity and others.

Anonymous Creative Futures Report Voice:
"We work and drain ourselves of our spiritual resources—time and energy—just to survive."

Therapist Parallel:
"The emotional labor of therapy is invisible, undervalued, and often underpaid. Who gets to do this work and still have a life?"

What’s Next?
Therapists, like artists, must build alternative economic models, whether through cooperatives, direct support models, or new hybrid approaches to making a living without being consumed by work.

Final Thoughts: The Shared Future of Artists & Therapists

At the heart of both art and therapy is a fundamental belief: that human presence, depth, and relational engagement matter. Yet both professions are under pressure to become more efficient, scalable, and marketable in ways that risk hollowing out their core purpose.

The Anonymous Creative Futures Report shows artists questioning platform capitalism, algorithmic control, the devaluation of craft, and the struggle to sustain meaningful work. Therapists, too, are grappling with these same tensions.

If the future of art depends on creating new, non-extractive models, the same is true for therapy. If artists are moving toward collective action, community-building, and resistance to digital enclosures, therapists must do the same.

Perhaps the future of therapy isn’t in following the path of medicine or business—but in embracing the ethos of art. To be a therapist is to be a craftsperson, an improviser, a collaborator, and a meaning-maker in a precarious world.

The old paths no longer serve us. The new ones are ours to create—together.