Thank you all so much for your thoughts. QM - 'Avoidant Protector' seems to make sense to me. The critic knows I've been 'harmed' before in sharing my experience and feelings with somebody who wasn't capable of hearing me, so wants to make sure that doesn't happen again...even though rationally I am aware that R would not let that happen.

There seems to be something interesting going on, because it's only come up forcefully in the last five or six sessions - trying to remember when I brought my working relationship with P into the room, and whether this might have something to do with that.