I'm sorry, hankster, I can't follow your reasoning at all - and not only because the Seinfeld example goes right above my head. I've never watched Seinfeld. Maybe I'm slow because it's new year's day and all, but I really don't understand what you mean by "this assumes that the client is able to have a good relationship". Do you mean that unless the client can have a good r/s there won't be a good r/s between therapist and client? Well, I guess that's kind of built into the concept. Somebody who cannot have a good relationship at all ever cannot have a good relationship ever, qed. But it isn't as black and white as that. I can have an acceptable professionally-based relationship with my T, and another kind of good professional r/s with my students, and a third with my colleagues, and so on. That doesn't mean I am capable of good friendships, to take an example from a different sphere of life. And certain aspects of the T relationship can, sometimes, for some people, emulate friendship, and that's what I was referring to.

Signing up to a gym with a personal trainer always means going to the gym. Signing up for therapy does not always mean discussing feelings. Lots of people have other needs than that.