This felt to me more like Woody and Gus processing out loud with Locke as a supportive listener, rather than Locke acting as a consulting expert. Probably because of the ratio of talk time. From what Locke said at the end though, supportive listening but asking tough questions may a purposeful strategy that has the best chance to be effective for actually impacting people's behavior - which is no easy feat. I think some therapeutic techniques also rely on this.
What I found most interesting and maybe valuable was the turning around of the question - why NOT Woody to the medical center, even if he seems to be getting better? Why NOT make that the default?
I think it's helpful because I have been in the position of really really wanting to avoid going for healthcare even when part of me knew it would be a good idea. In dive situations, that was usually down to not wanting to get a diagnosis that would cause me to lose diving time, vacation time, and money (both for costs of treatment and for taking time off of work), and my understanding that spending a lot of time in a chamber is no fun at all. In non-diving situations, it also often has to do with time and money (with the particular flavor of living in the USA where time off of work is stigmatized and more heavily financially penalized, even when I am lucky to have good insurance), but it may also have to do with embarrassment, inconvenience, poor prior healthcare experiences, and risk-benefit calculations corrupted by hope or self-interest.
Some of the factors that weigh against going for care come from systematic social and economic structures that I can't really do anything about in the moment, and that puts more onus on me (and my buddies, diving or not), to actively push for the default of getting checked out medically.
