I feel like my therapist has encouraged me to depend on him as a way of building up my own ability to take care of myself. Like the dependence on him isn't the point, but more like his reliably compassionate responses have helped me to stop attacking myself and figure out what I can do to feel better. I am getting better at doing this by myself, but having someone help me when I can't seem to stop the loop of anxiety and self-criticism really helps. He does between-session coaching, and the point of calls in between is very much about helping me focus on figuring out ways to help myself. So I feel like he has encouraged me to see him as a dependable source of assistance toward my goal of becoming better at dealing with stress and traumatic memories. And being able to depend on him has reduced some of the feelings of despair associated with those traumatic memories, many of which revolved around feeling that no one was able to help me.