I think some of the power dynamic comes from our roles, and some of it from our own personalities. I have had several therapists that I actually felt sorry for, and my perception was they had far less power than I did - they seemed not quite up to the task, or dim-witted, or wounded.

My current therapist is very good and smart, so I don't feel that way about him. We both tend to be pretty anti-authoritarian, so neither of us are inclined to give a lot of power to his role, but sometimes I do notice that there are situations where he does seem to have more power than I do because of his role (like he can set the fee, and he changed his office location and if I wanted to keep seeing him I had no choice but to go to his new place), while he mentioned when we had a rocky spot that he was concerned I would want to quit. I feel like our power switches off a bit that way.

Power and authority are pretty big themes in my therapy, but the dynamic in our relationship is not problematic, as it feels very much in balance and appropriate. I feel like we're equal - it probably helps that in terms of education, financial status, age, family background, etc, we're pretty similar.