I made a thread before about my T playing with and then taking off her necklace in session. Some people thought this was probably just me reading into things, or proposed that perhaps I had been looking at it -or her chest- enough to make her self-conscious of it.

Well, this past session I was pretty distraught and I KNOW I didn't look at her much at all but I heard her take off her necklace again (I wasn't even aware of the necklace until she took it off). She does this almost everytime she wears one. I have wondered if she puts it back on for the next client or how often she's taken it off that day. I have wondered why she feels conscious of this thing when in session with me.

But today, I also noticed out of the corner of my eye that she was mimicking my hand gestures. I was compulsively pulling on my sleeves and I noticed halfway through the session that she too was pulling on the end of her sleeves.

I've seen this general body mirroring before. Sometimes she mimics how I sit; if I'm either slouching on the couch, or leaning over with my hands on my knees, she will end up sitting that way as well. I used to wonder if these were just part of her process but now I'm certain this was subconscious and it makes me feel connected with on a whole other level.

I have come to the conclusion that she just has a deeply embedded instinctive empathy. When I'm that anxious, she FEELS it. She has mentioned her own path with boundaries and I can see that in how she subconsciously mimics my own nervous or not behaviors. She's still Her and doing Her Job but on some level, she's mirroring my anxiety and my pain. I get it now.

Do you ever notice you therapist mimicking your body gestures or reacting to your presence in a certain way?