When I was writing the title I was going to put something after 'what makes a therapist....' but I couldn't find the right word. Perhaps it's an interesting question to think does a therapist behave differently to other people in the world (I'm not sure if that was the question you were thinking of SD), or do they behave differently as a therapist than they do in their daily life. I have a feeling that my ex-t was being her genuine self - speaking her thoughts out loud to me, sometimes it felt like a stream of consciousness, and she said that her relationships in life outside therapy were like her relationship with me. Unfortunately I found some of her thoughts hard to hear, and felt oppressed by therapy with her in general. I imagine that I would like my relationships in life to be relationships where each person says what they really think and feel more, but perhaps in practice they would be as painful as my relationship with her was?