This question comes up all the time here. I never confronted my therapists about this and don't know if they do or not. If he does insignificant manipulations here and there to benefit me, I'm ok with that because I trust him. But I probably wouldn't want to know.
Now that i'm revisiting this topic though, I wonder if this relates to the provide nurturance, withhold nurturance scenerios I described in one of my recent threads "he drives me crazy sometimes"? Oh well...I'm dealing with too many negative feelings lately to think about that right now. At the same time, reading posts here helps me avoid focusing too much on those same negative emotions..
Well, this is a lot different than making someone purposely sad or mad or whatever. It's a pretty good article.
Quote:
In dynamic therapy, the therapist chooses how much anxiety to allow (or invoke). Minimize anxiety by avoiding painful topics and providing ample emotional support, and the boat of therapy sits stable but motionless in the water. The therapy is comfortable but does not go anywhere. Introduce some anxiety by gently confronting the patient, or simply by not offering as much support, and the boat of therapy starts to move.
However, it also becomes less stable, and in extreme cases may threaten to capsize. The job of the therapist, the sailor in this scenario, is to adjust the sail at every moment, such that anxiety and stability are in balance: Enough stability that the patient can trust the process, enough anxiety to propel the therapy forward.
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Sailing between support and insight in therapy | Reidbord's Reflections