I consider therapy as a unique relationship rather than an unreal one. But I find the uniqueness of the therapy relationship helpful, and the differences useful. I have a lot of friends, for example, but I feel like I can't burden them with all that grief and trauma that I can totally load up my therapist with. I love my friends and family, but they have never helped me very much in dealing with such matters. Perhaps this is some failing in how I relate to them, but I think in general people aren't great with dealing with serious loss until they have experienced it themselves, and most of my friends haven't dealt with the kind of losses I have. My therapist has managed to make himself very useful in dealing with all this, however.

I wouldn't gloss over the problematic aspects of therapy for some people, but for me it's the differences that make the whole construct useful.