Depletion, that therapist sounds horrid and I'm so sorry they completely botched their job with that destructive comment at your final session. Clearly, not everyone who can pass the classes is fit to do the sacred work.

As for me, I did start therapy knowing I was looking for a maternal figure, someone I could turn to for guidance and comfort about parenting, which then expanded to sharing my whole life. I wasn't expecting as much as I ended up receiving though. I'm grateful for her responsiveness to my desire for a mother-figure.

Conversely, I would sometimes feel more comfortable if she did just get upset at me as my own mother would, shut me out or turn on me. It's hard, of course, to be so vulnerable and wait for those reactions: not having that cycle of openness and resulting injury recur is actually anxiety-inducing, haha, or it was when I began. My ability to tolerate her acceptance and understanding of me has definitely grown.

Yea for transference, yea for counter-transference, haha. I hardly even look at them that way anymore, but just as two well-matched people meeting each others needs, her for a challenging, interesting client who can provide financial support and me for a caring, dedicated guide and mother figure who can provide emotional support and challenge me too!