First of all I never really saw myself as dependent in a bad way. My therapist was always supportive and willing to talk to me outside of sessions if necessary.

But at some point I started making a shift to processing things on my own and being more deliberate about what I shared. He has respected this process and noted it but not made an issue of it. At some point we will probably have a discussion about the shift.

I've always had this tendency but through a series of bad times with diminishing outside support my therapist had become one of the most important sources of connection.

That actually isn't changing in reality. What is changing is my own attitudes, a very internal growth period that feels very hard to share because it feels so vulnerable and hard to explain.

I don't want my therapist to feel that he is only a "worker" now, instead of someone special that I highly regard. On the other hand, I am not reaching out to him in the same way any more and even in session I am more pulled back.

Perhaps this is a phase in development. I don't know. I've been in therapy a long time, but not experienced this before. I sorta want to reach out and tell him how much he still means to me even if I'm acting differently. I'm just not sure how to balance the two.