I think I understand why you ask the question, Can't Explain, and yes, I do believe there is a form of manipulation exercised by T. I don't particularly like it or agree with it. I think T's can do therapy without deliberate manipulation but, I am not a T.

As clients, we are asked to be honest, vulnerable, open to the process and it makes it incredibly hard to remain ALL these things when we experience it.

My T and I just recently had this conversation because of a recent experience. One if his responses in an email felt like a carrot on a stick. ( I wrote about it in a thread here on PC). I asked him about it at my next session and he acknowledged his response was very deliberately sent. He could have easily sent the same response to me on Thursday morning, yet he waited. It felt like "just enough" to get me to come back to my next session and he said it was meant for that purpose. I think an authentic response would have been equally ( if not, MORE) effective and would not have stirred up some of the negative thoughts I had regarding his response.

Is this what you meant by manipulation?