1. I never force this. I tell her a little and if she does well and I *feel* more trusting as a result, then I gradually open up more. That's aside from the initial baring my soul about one conflict that I did when I started because I wanted help right away with that issue.

2. I focus on my primary goal, then others as that one's addressed.

3. I do this too at times, have a false affect, it's been a process to work through it. In the meantime... I just used my words and we had some miscommunications that we resolved which helped her understand me better. It just took time, as did the being more open. I feel these are things the therapist facilitates and that come as the relationship deepens.

16 weeks is still really new.

One thing that did help me some when I wanted to open up more was writing things out and using those in conjunction with verbal conversations.