I am glad you are feeling hopeful.

To me this is the mark of good therapy--you feel troubled in your therapy relationship, you are able to discuss your feelings, they are accepted and discussed, and the two of you forge onward together. Doing this with a therapist is how I started doing this more in real life.

I do think it's important that you are thinking of your own behavior, how trying to be a "good" client can be a distancing maneuver. It sounds like you were really real with him and it worked out well.

I think, personally, if a therapy relationship is in stasis for two long, even a comfortable stasis, that is not a good sign. There should be ruptures, disturbances like this. It means the relationship is moving and that both people are changing. To me that is the mark of therapy that is working. Or, at least, that is how I feel therapy worked best for me.