True. But the reality is that real life relationships are messy; real life is messy. We have to learn to navigate that messiness, to see life realistically instead of expecting it to be some fantasy that just can't exist. If we think the dynamic in therapy is what real life actually IS like, it just isn't going to be. If we learn that perhaps real relationships ideally should be the way they are in therapy, but understand realistically that they probably won't be, then we can learn to function in healthy ways with the real life stresses that we encounter day to day. We can learn to respect ourselves enough to set reasonable boundaries, have reasonable expectations, handle the stresses of life as they come. We don't have the cushion of that therapist outside those four walls, but we can learn to take the skills and insights we gain through therapy out into real life with us.