It's an interesting analogy, but sounds painful, perhaps unnecessarily so. I do think that in some ways we do ask them to get inside us and if they are not light and gentle with that then it can feel wrong and perhaps painful.

For me I think the pain is my own stuff that is stirred up and needs to be handled. I believe in the model of working through so it is like a process of grieving in some ways. The goal is acceptance and with that some peace, but the road to it can be full of dangers so it is not easy at all. But I have found that it is worthwhile. It has radically changed me, so much that I am almost a different person, but really just more of who I really am, instead of being warped around traumatic or unresolved material. But I go for exploration and transformation because ultimately I want peace and freedom. Sometimes that means stepping right into the stream of suffering, but I'm a buddhist so I believe suffering is part of being human though there are ways to reduce it. And therapy is one.