stopdog hit the nail on the head. They are humans, as everyone has written, and everyone will naturally make mistakes. But how they respond to this is what's more important. My last two therapists have made mistakes (like everyone), but their response to them differentiates them. One would all of a sudden change things (for ex, holding my hand) without explaining and put it on me: "You pushed me to hold your hand." The other has come into appts and at the beginning said "I made a mistake last time. I did X and I realized that this is not helpful, so I'm going to work on doing Y." This second model has taught me to do the same when I make mistakes - feel OK admitting my mistakes, take responsibility for them, and thinking of constructive solutions/behavior modifications. So, again, it's what they do with their mistakes, just like what we do with our feelings (attachment/wanting a mother as we've discussed on previous threads). We can't stop their/our mistakes or their/our feelings; what's important is the response--learning experiences for them and us. I love when therapists have told me that they learned about themselves from me as I feel "guilty" sometimes w/ it being such a oneway relationship.