I feel much better when people look at my sympathetically, ESPECIALLY therapists. It makes it much easier for me to open up. But that's my personal preference.

Whatever expression you prefer to see in a therapist who greets you certainly says a lot about your inner process, which is important to understand, I think. If this is really important to you, then certainly talk to the therapist about it.

I am not really the one to give a take on this. From my previous experience, very little of what I was trying to address in therapy got addressed. I am not in therapy now and I doubt I would go back to therapy any time soon, so whatever I need to understand about myself I do on my own through journaling, meditating, reading, painting..whatever suits me. Works just fine for me and saves me a lot of money too