I've only ever given one gift to a t, my current t. It was maybe 4 years ago now I guess for Christmas. I gave it to him not really worried about him accepting it because he has gifts from other clients throughout the years in his office and has talked about them from time to time: everything from McDonald's Happy Meal toys from children who were his clients to framed art from adults. He knows exactly who each token came from and the story behind it, whether it was just for fun or symbolic of something.

I have never felt obligated to give him a gift, nor did I give the gift with any other spirit other than a thank-you for being there through all the crap. It was a nice gift. I chose it particularly because it "spoke" to me when I saw it of how I think of him in the scheme of my life. It was a beautiful figurine of a circus elephant balancing on a really tiny round platform. He completely "saw" the symbolism in the figurine for me and it sits on his bookshelf now.

You do need to probably have a fairly good idea ahead of time if your T accepts gifts from clients in the first place; otherwise, it could be pretty painful to have him/her have to hand it back to you because of boundaries. I do think gift giving to anyone, be they family or loved ones or our T's, has to be about the spirit of giving for THEIR sake, not ours. If we are gifting to get something, some validation or response, from the receiver, the spirit seems in the wrong place, and I think that's where people end up feeling hurt or rejected if their preconceived/visualized response isn't forthcoming.