Maybe, your T was not looking for any particular result from this but she was looking for information. Maybe she gave you this assignment to understand you better through your response, associated emotions, etc. Maybe she thought it was worthy to submit you to such trigger and/or risk on behalf of the overall effectiveness of the treatment. Maybe she thinks your structures are strong enough to cope with this assignment despite all the negative the assignment is, I do not know.
Because of my concerns about Ts and my difficulties to open up in person, I was thinking a lot about what happens to TJ. I think you TJ are miles away, ahead from me because you have a lot courage and commitment to your treatment.
I was thinking that yes, we can always refuse an assignment, it is our own self, we suffer the consequences. But, on the other hand, reciprocally, our Ts can tell us they cannot continue working with us because we do not cooperate enough within the framework of the plan designed by them. And, if we are in therapy we need to trust in the ability of the T and somehow to submit to them by doing what they ask us to do, at the end of the day.
I was thinking that we can ask information of the meaning of a particular assignment although I understand sometimes a T cannot talk about the course of our treatment as we were colleagues because of our lack of readiness to full information or because they are managing different hypothesis at the same time, but at least Ts could tell us the purpose of the assignments they give us. This could help us to give perspective to the whole thing.
BTW, if right now I got the criticism you got, I would be crying like mad. I just could not do it.