I have a close friend who is a retired T. He actually came with me to a major session once when I flew him in because he knows some of the issues my T needed to know about from another T perspective. My friend was VERY different while he was in session with me and my T !!!! I have been to that friends home and know his wife and even been skinny dipping with the guy LOL. And he is just a very normal person who has some open ideas about things and has his needy momments. But on that day, I saw a very different side of him. Actually, it kinda freaked me out because I was like "hang on! who is this guy!!" I honestly would not want my retired T friend to be my T at all! It would not have worked!!!

I know my T has his own issues. I know his wife has stuck by him through his own intense healing. And even though he is now on the other side of things and has a wonderful relationship with his wife, I know she went through heck with him. ((Therapy related issues he has that I have so I know a little about stuff with him since he is honest and has to be.))

I think that a good T actually is doing a job. They may also love it. But it is still work. They have to put their best foot forward just the same way anyone else does at work. I adore my T and could see how it would be fun to know him as a friend. But seriously, I am glad he is my T because I get the very best of who he is. hee hee.

And when they go home, they can rest and be natural. Just like the rest of us. We carry inside us certain traits such as kindness. But we tend to bring out those good gems when we need to do work. Another consideration is "does anyone want to work all the time?" Even when we do something we enjoy doing, if we do it all the time, it can be a drag. For example, I work in IT. I am a nerd all the time. So I go to work and fix things and am great at my job (when my PTSD is not acting up). But when I come home, I don't want to fix a computer or do anything that is like my job! It isn't that I can't fix up a friend's laptop for them, it is that I don't WANT to fix it because that is my work.

I would think a healthy T would be the same way. They would not want to stay in T mode all the time. If they were to do that, I suspect they would burn out very quickly.