Not to sound too much like your therapist but, why does it matter and "what do you think?"

I believe love and attachment go hand-in-hand, especially in the therapeutic relationship. I remember having fantasies where I saved my therapist's life and if that's not love, what is?

But I tried not to get side-tracked by just concentrating on the relationship and not remembering my purpose for therapy, to help myself learn and grow. My love for my therapist and the attachment I felt/feel for her are, in the end, tools for me to use in my greater, "real" life out "here".

We love our parents and are attached to them and that's how we grow up and learn, often crummy stuff because our parents don't happen to be the greatest of teachers for us! Whether they are abusive, as my stepmother was or "kind" and distant, such as my father, they are constantly teaching us because we are living with them and learning "their" ways. I had to work hard in therapy to untangle how my stepmother's anxiety which had a lot to do with her controlling, abusive words and actions interacted with my own anxieties and tended to make me controlling and sarcastic. As others have noted here on PsychCentral, I "pull no punches" I use to do that in a much harsher, judgmental fashion and still have to "pay attention" to what I'm doing and saying.

What does loving your therapist do for you? My therapist was/is quieter than I was/am and I wanted to be like her. Concentrating on my attraction and love for my therapist helped me see other ways of perceiving situations, through "her" eyes, that were more pleasant than ways I'd been accustomed to seeing. When I have a situation, I tend to "attack" it but my therapist and husband are much slower and more thoughtful in their approach to things. Because I love them, I hold back more now and am more thoughtful on my approach to things. I use to get extremely anxious when I didn't know the answer to something, when I didn't "understand" what was going on, right this second! LOL. Again, both my husband and therapist gave themselves time and space and do not panic when approached by something new to them, and, because I love and respect them and their judgment and enjoy being with them and talking to them and just their general beings, I "remember" and emulate their approaches better now too, when I am dealing with something on my own.