I think this thread has put words to a lot of things with which I've been struggling. I always used to refer to it as a business. T would only begrudgingly acknowledge she ran a business...offered a service, but she doesn't seem to have trouble calling herself a professional. It's one and the same to me.

If caring is inherent in being a professional, then I feel like that isn't the kind of caring I want. That the caring T offers has nothing to do with who I am as a person. I didn't earn any caring. That is just who they are/how they do their job. That doesn't make any sense to me.

So is the only difference between T and my dentist or professor the amount of time I spend with her? Is that how I should look at it going forward? Because, so far, it's been in its own strange category that I have not quite been able to figure out.

Rainbow, I feel/understand your pain, I think.