A few years ago I was in a very bad place and my t at the time had to go away for two weeks. I didn't think to ask her for a transitional object but she picked out a card with a Cassatt painting on it ("Nurse Reading to a Little Girl") and wrote me a short letter. While she was gone I read the letter every night and looked at the picture a great deal. It helped a lot.

I was recently separated from my current t for a long while because of our overlapping vacation schedules. In the last session before I left town, I was telling her how scared I was that I would decompensate. I don't remember exactly how the conversation went... but I do remember her saying, "I don't think you're someone who would benefit from a transitional object," to which I immediately replied, "no, I'm not." I don't know why she said that, or why I agreed with her, given that I clearly have benefited from transitional objects in the past... though she and I have only been working together for like six months and also she's younger than my former t (current-t is ~10 years older than I am, whereas former-t is I dunno like 30-40 years older?) and our relationship feels more older-sisterly than maternal. I would definitely have felt extremely awkward accepting a transitional object from her, and I don't think I would want one that she gave me.

Despite all that, I did take her business card with her cell number with me when I was out of town. So for reasons that are not clear to me, I do want a transitional object but I don't want one that was given to me for that purpose.

Therapy's weird, folks.