I put Other.

Like everything else here, there is no simple answer. I think there are different kinds of power (philosophers have struggled to define power) and also there are shifts of power. It also depends on the mental illness, the personalities of both T and patient, etc.

Generally speaking, the patient has the power of accepting a therapist or rejecting one. So does the therapist who can reject or accept a patient. The therapist has the power of knowledge of the workings of patient's psyche. He or she also gets to set the appointment time (or rather, we have to choose from her availability time, which can be limited) and the place, decide on the approach, define what the problem is in the first place or what should be done about it, and sometimes is also the one also prescribing medications.

Some people seem to think therapy is like other fairly straightforward professional relationships, like going to buy a a pair of pants. You try it on by yourself, decide if you like it or not and if the price is right, and it's done.

But therapy is a process, so it's not like one day you decide you're okay with the power differential, then it's done. No, every single day it can come up, each time in different shape or form. Psychologically your sense of power oscillates, not only depending on what's going on in life but also the process of therapy.

Even if we accept the premise that the patient is the one who always had the power and the therapist is the one who will help the patient realize that power within them, it still necessitates the presence of a therapist so that they have some power. Therefore I don't see any logic in the idea that patient has all the power. Nor in the idea that therapist has all the power. A therapist needs patients also because that's how they make their living. Nor can they force you to go to them.

In terms of practical concerns, of course the patient can have more power if they have a mental illness that's easy to treat, they have money and access to many good therapists, have a supportive family and friends, and other ways they don't feel desperate or lonely or one way or other, completely powerless in having to stick with whoever is willing to accept them. BTW, that's how some abusive therapists get to have patients who stick with them.

One time I read about a person with borderline personality disorder and very difficult life, who had been essentially rejected by couple of therapists, and she was also barely able to afford therapy, so when she did end up with someone who seemed to know how to treat her and was strong enough and knowledgeable enough to help her, she said she was deadly afraid of losing the therapist and doing the wrong thing. This just added to her powerlessness, and sadly she also saw it parallel to her childhood with her abusive mother, seeing how we all have only one mother, bad or good.

I never found out what happened to her but I hope she was able to have more financial success and able to feel she could sometimes call the shots, and to see the therapists who rejected her as people who were simply not strong enough or able enough to help her and that it was their own shortcomings, not hers. It's quite devastating to feel so powerless in a relationship that should be all about empowering you.

Sorry for the digression.