I really liked this thread too. Thanks for starting it. My current t does the chit chat and then, so how are you doing? And it makes me feel awkward now. I say good.

The weird thing is, before I started coming to him I got comfortable bringing up whatever I wanted to bring up at the beginning of the session with my last t. The first few times I came to this t I did that too. I stopped because I worried that I'm too self focused. I felt weird about jumping right in without getting to know him. It turned out, unlike any other t's I've had, he's very open to talking about himself. I've actually felt like he talks about himself too much and takes up my time. And then I felt guilty for being too self focused. Letting him talk and direct the session seems to work for us.

I can hardly believe I'm saying a t talks too much for me. Not too long ago, I had a post on here complaining that one of my recent t's was not directive enough. lol.