"Is it their stating the obvious?" I think their statement of the obvious is part of a technique (not just a psychotherapy technique) where you let the other person know you heard what the other person (in this case the client) just said. This is not a given. You, stopdog, may hear, and i, hankster, may hear, and our lives depended on our interpreting a situation correctly or in a way that ensured our safety. This is what i learned this week. But this way of hearing and seeing is now getting in my way. It is an isolating way to live.