I don't know if I could call it protective. She has empathy. She is more than willing to put in effort to help me do difficult things, but she will not "protect" me. Like with my Pdoc, she's not going to step in the middle and try to solve the problem. With my fiance, she has never lectured him on how he treats me. She does encourage him to support me and help me and gives him ideas how to. She has never said she wishes I didn't experience something. She just emphasizes with the pain and emotions.

I don't want her to feel protective of me and she doesn't want to feel that way either. It would only place her in a mothering role which is something we both don't want to happen.