Right. Nicely put. We've recently had similar discussions here about the relative merits of having an LGBT T (for LGBT clients anyway) and my experience has borne this out. If the T hasn't truly processed the issue their shame or even just their own experience this can prevent them from really hearing and empathizing with the client's story. The same is no doubt true for socioeconomic issues or any issue at all.

I was seeing a quite terrible T around the time my mom died. I didn't see her for a month or two prior to her death because I was in my mom's city with her. Afterward I went to her and talked about all the gory details of the death, the funeral and all that. This prompted her to launch into a whole story about her own mother's death when she was 15 under much "worse" circumstances than my mom's death. She started to cry about her own experience. I was initially sad about her horrible experience but then became quite furious that she hadn't processed her issues and that her pain was keeping her from empathizing with me.

For all my earlier, uh, angst in this thread, this is what allows me to keep the issue in focus. My T's decision to cut back on her practice is eliciting judgment and non-empathy from me. However I feel like her ability to "see" me and her empathy for me has been pretty much unwavering (except in the sense that she is, you know, "abandoning" me ha ha ). This is why I think despite all my resentment and anger and whatnot about her wealth-facilitated career decisions, it's not ultimately going to be such a big deal between us.