I believe that in any profession, there are times when it is important to be honest with your clients. I have often told the young lawyers that I mentor that they are not doing their job if they are not pissing someone off at least some of the time, including their own clients.

I think that your T was expressing a true sentiment-- her truth. I don't think that her job is to encourage clients who experience negative life events to sugarcoat their lives and make these things somehow positive. Instead, her job is to want more for you, and to let you know that you deserve to have more in your life than what you have. Her purpose in saying that may be what Perna said, it may have been to encourage you to express your own negative feelings about your life, it may have been an attempt to connect with any negative feelings you may have already expressed, etc. I also think that, as others have said, it's really important for you to confront her about it, tell her how it made you feel, and see how she responds. That's be pretty much the best gauge of what kind of a T she is, at least for you.

My T has said a number of things that have pissed me off. They have also been honest. I wasn't always grateful for them at the time, but in looking back, I see it was those times that I have probably learned the most.

Best, Anne