One thing I find interesting in both of the articles that we linked on this thread is when therapist and client experience similar feelings that may have (at least partially) similar origins, how they trigger each-other and identify with one-another. I very definitely experienced this with my therapists, both negative and positive ones. I liked my last therapist so much in part because he was very open and willing to share his side with me. The first one (who often annoyed the *** out of me) was much more insecure, sometimes condescending, and tried to cover it up, often in messy ways. The latter approach completely killed any desire and willingness on my side to self-identify with that therapist or feel that we had things on common, while the openness and direct, secure and consistent style of my second T encouraged me and created a very positive environment for our interactions even when we shared problematic areas. One limitation of that very positive context though was that both the T and I avoided some things, I think because we generally enjoyed each-other's company a lot and did not want to introduce conflicts or break the atmosphere.