Listening and validating and empathizing are the first things that we learn to do in my classes. People need to feel heard and understood before they can look towards change. Sometimes those things alone are enough for a client to be freed to find their own solutions. My T did that a lot at the beginning, but stopped because I didn't respond properly to it then. I have tried telling her that what she is doing now is hard on me, and that I need more warmth and acceptance. It doesn't go over well at all. I kept saying it, and finally she did apologize for not listening to me, and said that what she wasn't getting was that I couldn't do therapy, so she was going to terminate me. So I freaked out, because if I can't do therapy, I can't be a therapist, so I would be stuck in the life that I needed to get away from, and I ended up suicidal over it. Then I pulled it together enough to show her that I could do it. I have even sent her an example of what she wrote to me earlier on that I really liked. It's just not where we are now.