I've felt like this has happened when I would share my very personal journey when I was in the throes of deep trauma work, and he would hand it back to me politely without saying a word, or maybe the phrase "thank you for sharing."

At some point I mentioned this, and T explained that he didn't want to say anything until I brought it up first, as it was very personal, and he didn't want to impose his thoughts or reactions until I indicated I was ready to hear them. He was quite eager to talk about them when I did raise something I wrote about in my journal.

So when you say the T's reaction is like being slapped with the reality of the business relationship, is it possible you are interpreting respect for your in-chargeness of raising this material when you feel ready to (that T is just waiting for you and respecting your timeline) as something negative?