You've gotten a lot of good answers here. I just want to share my struggles with "being in the moment" with my T. I've always used writing and intellectualizing instead of being right there in the moment. In past therapies, I used to show my Ts what I wrote, and sometimes read or showed them my journal. I was embarrassed at how different my journal was from what I said in therapy.

With my current T, I wanted to bring in my emails to her and refer to them. She always discourages me from doing that. She wants to know what I am feeling now, in the moment with her, not when I sent her the email. Sometimes I get frustrated because what I wrote is relevant, so I tell her that. But I have found that this therapy is so different from the others because, for the first time, I'm able to look directly at my T and "be in the moment" with her. It's like night and day from having a T read what I wrote, or listen to what I report. I am big on "reporting" my feelings, not feeling them.

So, it's a different ball game when you are in the moment with your T. Enlightening. Scary. Productive. Intimate.

I think there is room for both, though I encourage you, like others have, to discuss it more with your T and hear his explanation of your confusion about what he is suggesting.