RS — I’ll butt out after this but quickly: the feelings fade and / or you’re a different person / in a different space / able to feel and “hold” differently when it comes time?

For what it’s worth (which may be nothing, considering I’m mocking her near constantly), current T told me that she was in her 30s, working as a therapist, with two kids and a husband and seeing her own therapist thrice a week.

I think I’ve said this before here but she said the feelings were so strong that she’d take her vacations to coincide with his (and now she somehow thinks her clients, including yours truly would do the same but that’s a different matter!) and ended up spending her vacations thinking about therapy (not always but enough that she still has strong memories of it).

Fast forward a few years later (she didn’t tell me how long she was in therapy) and her therapist has retired and (if you disregard my kvetching about her) she’s none the worse for it.