My first T had the annoying habit of probing into areas where she was not yet welcome. Then her responses were just blunt. I cried all of the place talking about the guilt that I felt about my great aunt's death and she says, "You shouldn't feel that way." It was like a slap in the face or a way to encourage me to slap the guilt feelings back into denial. She said something like "You should feel that way." on a few occasions. I knew that she was experienced (over 30 years) and knew how to analyze a person's thinking but she couldn't seem to empathize with me much. I though I could find a way to work with her until she left the office and I switched to my current T. My current T has a more gentle therapy approach. She does CBT but she gives me that when I signal her that I want her suggested on how to re-think something. She knows when to offer a re-think suggestion and when to just listen and empasize with me. I suspect that this is one of the hardest things to do. CBT focuses on the re-thinking and so I suspect that an inexperienced T who is trained in CBT might make a re-think suggestion without trying to see if simply empathizing is what is needed. I sometimes find myself struggling to know what to say when I pretend to counsel someone (studying AODA counseling). My T has admitted that she doesn't always know what to say but this tends to happen when I want to take over session and she thinks that she needs to ask me stuff to get me to talk. All she really needs to do is tell me to start talking her ear off--trust me I have an agenda.
I'm glad that you have a T that you can really work with now. A T that matches you well is a real treasure!