Thanks, reflection. I do think I overinterpreted what he said, but I don't think he was trying to say we are so close. I think he was trying to justify his statement from before--that he made it because he thought we were close and so he didn't need to explain himself. The corollary is that if he does need to explain himself, then we must not be close. He has often told me to seek clarification (from himself or others, such as my XH) when I do not understand something. And he has often clarified things for me about what he has said, when I have asked. I do wish he just could have clarified his statement (explained what he meant) without having to explain WHY he made his statement the way he did (because he thought we were close). He could have just explained without trying to tie it to our relationship. This will not be a glitch for us--I did share my hurt with him, and it is behind us. I do think it interesting that T felt the need to "justify" like that, and I think it shows a little defensiveness and that he is human too. It is a bit of a hot button for him and I hit it. I'm going to be sensitive to this and provide that "holding" that he does for me all the time.

I wrote that when T made his "I'm not firing you a client" comment, I became aware of the power he had in our relationship. But after the session, I realized that I now had some power too, in this particular "hot button" area. At first I was very uncomfortable with that realization and felt I DO NOT like having this power over T--like there's something I could hold over his head if I wanted to. But I'm feeling differently today, like I can rise to the occasion on just this one thing, and give him back on it what he always gives to me. I'm not going to use this power, and I'm making the decision to trust him to not use his power either ("fire me").