If I am in a bad mood going into therapy, I will sometimes have the "Well no ****" response if t expresses empathy. At the beginning I remember thinking her responses and facial expressions to my talking about pain were a bit exaggerated.

But when I am not in such a bad mood, I realize that t is probably just checking that she understands what I am feeling. "That must have been very difficult" is a check to see if that is what I really meant and t is giving me the opportunity to confirm and/or explore that feeling. She's opening the door to see if I will walk through it or not.

But I get the adverse response to the empathy and like others have said it's not because I don't feel worthy of care.