Or maybe her silence is her way of respecting my feelings and letting me express them without interruption?

^This.

I never cried as a child. It just wasn't safe. My mother was of the "I'll give you something to cry about" school of parenting.

I very unexpectedly burst into tears in my first session. And not critterlady's genteel trail of tears: full-on gasping, nose running, red-faced sobs . Interspersed with apologizing.

He got up and moved the box of tissues to the arm of my chair from the table next to me, sat down, and very softly said that maybe I needed to cry and that it was safe to cry there.

I think my trust began in that moment.