I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect to hear 'I care about you!' from a therapist and don't think it's a childish need at all. Heck I wouldn't want to work with a therapist that doesn't care about me as an individual- or would refuse to try to get there. Geez. Now, 'I love you!' is a different story, but I won't get into that.

This all just feels like withholding and rejection to me... And Yearning please don't take any of this personally. Agreed with others that it's the therapist's issue.