Simplified: A good (fitting) therapist will help you by providing a structure. This might include a way of thinking about stuff by talking, writing, painting, meditating, how really doesn’t matter that much.

The goal is to help you work through something that is hard to work through on your own. So, you are powering the process, but the therapist guides you into specific directions. They can’t make you do anything, just guide you.

You are like multiple horses pulling a carriage in different directions. Some people can solve this problem by themselves (mostly with the informal help of friends), others need a therapist to help guide all horses back into the same direction.