Thanks, that book (Psychotherapy: Lives Intersect by Louis Berger) looks really interesting. I really like hearing things in people's own words, and the author got 30 former clients to participate.

This description of the author kind of reminds me of someone I know.

"Breger’s patients reported characteristics that we would hope to see in any competent psychotherapist or psychoanalyst: compassion, attunement, listening, insight, intensity, a non-judgmental attitude, non-defensiveness, time, conscientiousness, acceptance and forgiveness. A few are special to Lou as a person and to the contemporary relational model of psychoanalysis which he practiced: self-disclosure, friendship, the sharing of music, jokes, and politics, and even the well-timed gift of a chocolate chip cookie."