Yeah! and I think that with me, at first it wasn't necessarily deliberate.. it was just that I had so thoroughly *tested* my therapist (also not necessarily deliberate) and felt so absolutely safe, that my defenses were not prompted to be raised or something. And these accidental stumblings into vulnerability were rich and intimate experiences.. where my openness was treated with so much care. So it became easier and easier to just *be* vulnerable. When I realized what was happening and talked about it, my therapist taught me how to judge "out there" whether it was safe to be vulnerable.

And in therapy, she always told me that she was totally okay with me not trusting her. She let me be however I needed to be, defenses and all, for as long as I needed to. Somehow I think that served to accelerate the development of my being able to trust her.