This is a great point. I think because so many of us were deviously and maliciously manipulated in the past, we look warily on the whole idea of manipulation when in actuality, manipulation is all around us, and it isn't always with harmful intent. We manipulate others all the time: parents learn how to manipulate situations with their children; heck, children are master manipulators of their parent for that matter. It isn't an evil thing unless in the hands of someone truly setting out to do harm, and we sometimes forget because of our backgrounds that not everyone out there is out to get us.

If the word "manipulation" bothers you (it carries a very negative connotation for some people), try "guidance" or "approach" or "direction" maybe? I never found my therapist's manipulation to be much more than his approach to working with me to help guide me toward healing, to help me find some direction in my life. Obviously that isn't why everyone sees a therapist (SD comes to mind), but a large number of us go to therapy very much to try to find some direction and focus, and the reason we utilize a therapist is that we haven't been particularly successful in doing it alone, so that "manipulation" or "guidance" or "direction" (whatever you want to call it) is what we went there looking for.