I think it would be difficult to be "friends" with a T after therapy, because they know (hopefully) EVERYTHING about us; yet, we know NOTHING about them. And when we finish T, hopefully we like ourselves and are in a much better place.

Our T, though, is still the same T that we started with. We are the ones that have changed (hopefully we made a positive impact on them in a small way, as well, though).

It sort of reminds me of being around an actor or actress. In front of the camera, they take on a persona / character. But when they leave the set, they are regular joe or josephine.

But we only know them as their "character".

IRL it isn't all that thrilling or exciting: they have the same problems, worries, concerns, attitudes, issues, headaches that we do. Most of the time, they are a total mess like the rest of us

It ends up feeling off-balance/so strange because we feel we "know" them from their acting work; yet we really know nothing at all. It's totally awkward and many times uncomfortable.