I think knowledge can't hurt and if it is reassuring to a client to have knowledge about therapy, then that should be something a therapist can tolerate. If a therapist is reluctant for the client to be informed, I wonder if it is something to do with the power dynamic? I do think there is a certain type of person who goes into clinical work who likes to be the more knowledgable one (certain MDs come to mind). I don't think most therapists suffer from this flaw, but probably some do. I also think it is up to the client to ask their T about therapy if they want more info that they don't have. The therapist can answer their questions, suggest some books or articles, etc.

I have not talked to my current T much at all about the therapeutic process because I just like to let it unfold. A big exception was EMDR. We spent at least a session if not more talking about the technique itself so I would know what to expect. I was in therapy for almost a year with my first T and never once asked anything about therapy or looked up anything in books or the Internet. If I had, I would probably have realized that her style of therapy (CBT) was not a good fit for me and I might have moved on more quickly. With my current T, something that drove me to learn more about therapy is that I became very attached to him very quickly and this quite freaked me out. I thought I was highly aberrant, but when I did some reading, I found that this strong attachment is not unusual and is a good predictor of success in therapy. So I was reassured! Where's the harm in that?

I personally think your T's statement about ambiguity was a fast way of backpedaling to protect her *ss. I don't disagree that learning to tolerate ambiguity is valuable, but I think she was just using this as an excuse in this case to cover her inadequate internal response to the thought of having a knowledgable client. Horrors!