Brown Owl: Nice hearing that you got back into therapy and could work things out. Me personally would react to my T being gentle in a situation when I´ve criticised her. I wouldn´t think that´s an honest response but just a way to "get me to talk again". I don´t say that was the way things happened in your case but I wouldn´t take such a reply from my T seriously.

Perhaps it´s not suitable for the T to give a lot of criticisms back but a too kind and gentle manner would just make me feel even more stupid and trapped into some kind of "game-playing".