What I don't understand is...

I get that people say "I don't need them to tell me they love me, because they show me." Why is it so unacceptable for a T to say they love a client but if a mother, father, friend, husband, wife, sister, brother, child, teacher, pastor, whomever is intimate to you loves you and never says it - then the person is left feeling neglected? If you know a T loves you, then why is it wrong for them to state the obvious? If I know I don't like someone, I'm not going to beat around the bush and hope that they read my actions. I'm simply not going to entertain them at all.

I don't mean that a T has to love every client, nor a client every T - nor do I think that it's a requirement to do a good job. (I also think the professionalism scale is subjective to what you expect from a T.) For instance, if my doctor were to say it - it'd be weird. I don't know him like that or vice versa, but my T does self disclose a lot (and maybe she doesn't because I don't know the full spectrum of her life but I know many things about her past and present which I hold close and would never share with anyone else).

T tells me she loves me all the time, I never say it back. I do love her, and I think she knows I do, but my issues don't lie around the 'verbalizing' of the phrase as much as the verbalizing of any emotion. I think people put too much power in the "verbalizing" of the phrase, and if you honestly feel it there is nothing wrong with sharing that as long as you don't expect it to, and can accept if it is not, reciprocated. Imo, love for someone, though it may sting, doesn't just 'go away' when you find out that they don't love you back.