My T makes me feel seen and heard by validating how I feel and what I think. He tells me that my emotions make sense, that I make sense. When I say something like I feel humiliated ( or something like this), he doesn't tell me that I don't need to feel humiliated. He usually just sits with me and it feels really safe. I feel seen and heard because of his consistency in how he acts in therapy and how he responds to me kindly, intelligently, empathically.

My previousT, when I told him that I regretted things I had done/said, he replied, "I would have you not feel that way." I know, have no doubt, that previousT said this out of kindness. However, my T taught me that however I feel is how I feel. That it is okay to feel however. That I don't choose how I feel nor can I not feel something I feel on command.

It may seem that I idealize my T, but truthfully, everything I have said is true.