Chopin, forgive me for talking about you in the 3rd person here! (because you know I'm also saying this for you, too!)

Antimatter,

It will be interesting to see how Chopin feels about all of this in hindsight.

I'm basing what I'm saying strictly on Chopin's shared perspective on her T, in which her T seems pretty empathic and well-trained. I doubt she's lost those qualities in the last week. I trust that she's seeing Chopin where she is realistically which may be differently from where Chopin saw herself in that moment. Perhaps she wanted to align her response with Chopin's capable and empowered self, since that's the part that is facing new challenges at work.

Perfect matching in mood of response to communication isn't realistic or necessarily beneficial all the time. It's rather reminiscent of how we talk about interaction between a baby and Mother, but not how we talk about interactions between adults.

Handling the interaction as you've refashioned it may be appropriate in some situations, but not necessarily for all, or at all times. I don't think that means T is somehow deficient or lacking.

Sometimes a T chooses to validate a part of the personality that isn't reflected in the mood of the moment because it can strengthen that part of the personality and bring it to the forefront. It's in the skill of the T to be able to discern when that's appropriate, and when it isn't.