Perhaps they don't but I've never actually confirmed the ET. I've only mentioned my attachment to them and authority figures in general and they have never appeared open to talk about it further and explore what it might mean. Maternal/paternal transference has always been the main issue behind my attachment to Ts. The ET develops later on and I alternate between the two but never experience both in the same time period. If I'm feeling vulnerable, I feel child-like and it will be paternal/maternal transference. If I feel more with it, it will be ET. The maternal transference is always so much intense though, followed by paternal and last of all ET. I feel like I want to act out my maternal transference and fantasize about Ts as parents and me as a young child. With the ET though, it was something I shunned and didn't want to entertain in my mind because it felt just pure wrong. I finally did allow myself to think through a scenario of intimacy with T because I wanted to know, would I actually want this to happen? And the answer was, no way.

It was such a relief to me to know this but it has meant ever since that I'm wondering what the ET is about. I would be willing to talk through it in therapy to understand this and I don't see how it would be a slippery slope for a therapist in this instance because I don't want the ET or T. I think it should really depend on the client but for some reason, Ts won't try talking about it before they ditch the client and refer onto a colleague.