My friend, a retired T - and a retired T teacher, told me "Therapy done right hurts. The only thing harder is therapy not done at all when needed."

In therapy, we are opening up wounds. It is often more comfortable to just continue ignoring the inner pain or doing things to numb the pain. When a person decides that they want to do the work needed to realize their healing, they expose their tender heart parts. Often, just the process of learning how to trust ANYONE is anguishing.

I think that is why many people often feel so raw when seeing a T. That is one of the wonderful benifits of PC - we do have a support system where we can hash out these emotions. Some of them are transference. Some of them are not. But it is a safe (thanks to you moderators!) place to work through all of those things.

Therapy of the mind is no different than therapy of the body. Both tend to cause pain in the course of healing.