I could see how his response to how you were feeling about Christmas could have felt invalidating. For me, there's a part that is very much aware that my feelings surrounding my T missing sessions are coming from a place that is incongruent with the patient/doctor (or professional/client) relationship. At the same time, there are other parts that are like... but this isn't just any professional/client relationship; she's part of my life routine, the space with her is where I feel the safest, ... ... , and she's mommy (ok, yeah that's transference, it's still there and a part of me). I don't see how he honored and witnessed the parts of you that just wanted him there, just because. What I read in his response was him making it be about him and not about you. Maybe, I'm way off base here, as I was not part of the full conversation. I can see how it might leave you feeling like that part is not valued, important, or safe to voice its wants/needs. And yea, that can deflate the faith and belief in the process.

The part of resistance would bug me significantly. I really hate it when I feel like T is analyzing my every action. Sometimes it's just life. I come from work, sometimes someone grabs me as I am walking out the door or I get caught up in something and so on. This past Thursday I was 10 mins late, which is really late because they had blocked off so many parking spots I had to circle and circle to find one. I didn't have much time as I'm in the middle of a big project at work that had deadline this week. So, yeah, had she come at me as to why I might have been late as resistance, it would not have gone well for us.

I would agree that it has great potential to escalate on its own; and that is tough. You don't want to minimize your experience, you'll want to be able to explore what happened, why it happened, what about it fed what.. ect. Timing is important around this exploration. And this specific instance doesn't have to be explored, because if it's important, it will come up again (per my T).