It's great that you got that kind of feedback.

This concept has recently come up for me in my own therapy and caused me to question it.

I think certian moments in therapy call for a therapist validating their patients experience (injustice, anger, pain) and then there are moments where it's necessary for therapists to be withholding in order to fascilitate exploration or the working through.

I think it takes a sensitive and skilled therapist to be able to be in tune with their patient and intuit what their patient needs to hear at that moment.

I also think it is very easy for a therapist, when frustrated or triggered, to hide behind "I am doing what's best for you" when being witholding. As patients, I think we can all sense where the source of the witholding is coming from(their issues or having our best interest at heart).

In general, I doubt whether the whole concept of "witholding" is even necessary in therapy.