Zooropa, this sounds like a lovely idea. I'm glad the other T gave you the info and not just the lecture!

"I want to spend a little T time tomorrow talking about the past 2 years, and the progress I've made. I'd like to hear about that from Ts point of view."

Just wanted to respond to this part of your post- my T and I write 'review letters' at important points like anniversaries or long therapy breaks describing the work we've done together and the progress I've made. I have tended to write about how my target behaviours have decreased, and about the steps I've taken towards my long term goals. I also write about how I feel about our relationship. My T then writes one back which sort of echoes my achievements but includes her feelings and perspective on the changes, and lots of positive relationship stuff. It always sounds so much more significant in her words than in mine, and I love the solidity of the letters (vs spoken words). The chance to take stock feels important.

Also, I think I read somewhere else that your T is quite directive and doesn't like to spend time talking about the therapeutic relationship. I think this is at least partly a DBT thing- DBT is quite prescribed in what is done during sessions, and therapists are taught how not to get derailed by client agendas. However, in DBT there's always the 'carrot' of the client being allowed to choose what session time is used for if they haven't engaged in destructive behaviours (and so don't need to use the time for a chain analysis). Marsha Linehan writes about one client of hers who engaged in dangerous self-destructive behaviours every week for months on end and then suddenly stopped. When asked why, she said "I realised I'd never get to talk about anything else unless I stopped!"

I think you might be doing Stage 2 (trauma) work though rather than Stage 1 behaviour chain analyses though? Stage 2 isn't well specified by DBT at all (it seems that you use whatever therapeutic model works for the client's specific difficulties rather than DBT as such), so this info may not help. I do think though that there's always room for negotiation, and that if you are engaging with the really hard stuff, you should get some of what you find rewarding too.

I very much hope that your session feels special and that your T allows you some time for reflection.