I would find that response both invalidating and confusing. I mean, maybe she thought the wink implied she felt that, too, but a T should be more clear in what they mean.

Though I think T's can be a little weird about responding to client's saying that they love them in general, both from personal experience and from what I've read on here. The first time I told T (in person), she was like "That's very sweet," which felt invalidating. Like, "Aw, that's nice." Never really talked to her about it though. The second time, a few months ago, I shared it during session, and we then were saying something about how the T relationship is a strange one, so I knew she couldn't say it back. She agreed about it being a unique relationship, then added, "Not that I don't love you, too," which surprised me that she'd admit that. Though not long after that, we had a big conflict, and I wonder if maybe she felt weird about sharing the feelings.

First time I told marriage counselor (on the phone), I worded it in a way that led to an easy answer: "So if I love you, is that OK?" To which he said "That's OK!" which was fine (and didn't feel invalidating). However, a year later, I felt sort of compelled to tell him that again, this time over e-mail (mistake!). And I said how it was platonic (which about 95% of it is...). He responded with something like, "Thanks, that's very kind of you" and how he was glad I realized it was platonic. Which felt very invalidating--seemed more like a response to "You're a great T!" or "That's a nice shirt." And led to me sobbing and sending him an e-mail saying how upset his response made me, because it felt so invalidating (and, to me, like 'Thank God she only has platonic feelings!") and he called me the next day to talk about it. The phone call helped quite a bit.

I agree with what Echos said about how "when my therapist disappoints me or acts in a way that makes me uncomfortable, the real work is in the resolution." It can be tempting to just avoid bringing up stuff your T does that upsets you, but I've found it's better to bring it up. And can often lead to a strengthening of the relationship as a result. So I agree that you should talk about it. You could even just say something like, "You responded with a winking emoji. What did you mean by that?" Or just say it felt invalidating, but I understand that would be more difficult.