pink... i have a LOT of trouble with the concept of caring, especially in a therapy context. i don't believe my T cares about me, i believe he acts in a caring way and he is a caring person. To me, caring means more than an hour. But your relationship has a lot more of my personal criteria for caring... he calls to tell you about a book, he discloses his own emotions in a limited and reasonable way... he has taken the therapy relationship in what i feel is the right direction... made it human.

Is he a stranger? yes and no. He is less of a stranger than most T's i think by virtue of how he conducts his work with you. But there is an element of "stranger" there still. i don't know if stranger is quite the right word maybe. It is an unnatural relationship to be sure, so what word truly fits? Do we even have one in our language for such a thing?

But i am odd. i think the T relationship should begin as it does now, then graduate into something akin to what your T does, and then eventually into something more natural and human. i don't think it's right or healthy in the long run to have it just be a business deal. i can sit and chat with my orthopedist if i run into him at a local pub, which is quite possible... i'm not saying we should become close buddies exactly, but it should become more open from both sides near the "end." And i don't think there should be an "end" exactly either. An end to sessions and billing and obilgations... yes... but i think the relationship should slowly become something like what one has with an old friend that one rarely sees.... an exchange of general information, life events, a genuine happiness to meet up.. even an occasional phone call.

i wish more of them saw it as a life's calling instead of how they make their living. i wish the world worked differently... that healers of all walks saw themselves as being in a community and that a community does not "begin" nor "end."

i don't know pink.. i am off on a tangent i think... i just have a lot of trouble with the way the relationship is "supposed" to go i guess.. i think your T is less of a stranger than most though.