I love my therapist (but I feel like I love a lot of people, and I think in reading on here I have come to realize I might define love more broadly than many? Not sure). To me it just means we have a very warm connection and I trust him to treat me well and to be there to help me. We have great kindness in our hearts for each other. He is important to me, yes. I'm not sure I'd say valuing his opinion is a huge part of it for me- sometimes I think he's wrong, for example. I do value the way he works, though I'm not sure that's a huge part of the love thing for me.

I don't think my therapist would ever tell me he loves me, but I feel very much like he does, and I suspect he loves most or all of his clients. (If he were to say otherwise, I would think its not because he doesn't love me or his other clients as I define love, but that he defines love differently. I don't feel very inclined to get too hung up on the definition, so I'm content with that.)

He uses compassion in his work and he's a big ol' Buddhist, so I feel like he's got the compassionate love thing down. And I feel like the compassion he shows toward me helps me to soften my own attitudes toward myself, and to be less critical and less ashamed of myself.