My T calls love the "L bomb" for me It throws me off every time she says it.

I do love my T. My T does love me. I love her as a person, not just because she's my T. It's not "in love", romantic, obsessive. For me, it's that I care about her, feel safe with her, enjoy talking with her, learning about her. I have a connection with her. I can read her, she can read me. There is trust and understanding. There is acceptance even for our weaknesses.

Like some others have said, there are many different definitions of love and everyone has their own definition. Maybe your definition is different than your T's?

Btw, you're not paying your T for love. You're paying for her expertise and experience. Love just comes in some relationships.

Maybe your T means that you are spending so much effort resisting your feelings of attachment, that you're inhibiting your natural process (because the feelings do exist, but you're just trying to run from them? Maybe that's preventing you from moving forward, from opening up, something similar? Idk.

I still struggle with the concept of love and my own definition. I only identify love based on a gut feeling? It's hard to describe. My T and I were discussing it at one point, but so many other things have come up since.

Recently, she told me I'm at the stage where love is what I need (based on Maslow's). It was weird to hear her say that I needed love from my Pdoc. Once again, the "L bomb" threw me off.

I think love is a difficult concept. It can be overused, underused, there are different definitions and meanings. And then it's even more confusing when people who have hurt us say that they "love" us.