After my last session, I realized that when my therapist rephrases (validates/reframes) something I've just said, it annoys me and often I shut down. Not that shutting down is anything new, it seems to be my answer to just about everything...
When she does this my anger flares because I feel like I am not articulate and her doing this highlights that flaw in me. Like she is lording it over on me that she can condense into one concise statement my 5 minutes of struggling to explain something. I know this isn't what her motive is, and I know she is putting it out there for me to look at and think about, letting me know she's heard me, giving me sometimes a slightly different way of looking at something. Still, it can feel like a power struggle or competition or something like that.