Good luck, roadrunner, with your new T! It's like you said: one step at a time! I tend to do the same thing. I want to make people around me feel good, so I always made jokes to see them laugh and used to hide behind a smile; the smiling depressed!
I hope this time you will connect with your new T and will find it more and more easy to drop your facade and show your true self, which I'm sure is wonderful!
No comments for your previous T; those people shouldn't be allowed to work as professional therapists.
Let us know how things are progressing.