I wish I knew more about my T's life experience. I get the sense that she has struggled, though I have no idea in what way or if her experience bears any similarity to mine. Recently I've been thinking a lot about asking her if she's ever dealt with things that are similar to my concerns. But I'm wary of crossing a boundary, so I haven't yet. I think it could be beneficial, because there are definitely ways that she talks about parts of my experience that make me cringe, and think that there's no way she's ever experienced this.

As for the degree thing. I have a PhD too, and initially found it important to see a T with a doctorate. Looking back though, I'm not sure how much it really matters. I saw my degree program as a series of jumping through hoops that didn't necessarily prepare me well for my future career. Guess I haven't realized how biased I might be about assuming T's program was similar