Isn't 'mother' very symbolic? Mothering is a nurturing action. Mothering fulfills our human needs. Mothering is offering acceptance and guidance.

So, although I don't have a conscious desire to make my T my mother, I suspect that the kind of nurturing I didn't receive as a child is being provided by my T. She has even commented on emotional developmental delays.

A kind of re-mothering or re-parenting can happen in therapy. There's a chance to truly become a mature adult - and an adult who does still have emotions but is able to process and regulate them well.

It is funny though that even with no conscious thinking of my T being 'mother' (and she's younger than me), when she was gone the last time on vacation, I called my 'substitute' T my babysitter. And I said, "the babysitter will never replace mommy."