Excellent responses!

Ididitmyway expressed what I should have written, so I’ll only say:

No therapist — no good therapist — should respond in anger to anything that a client shares. That is unacceptable behavior and immoral. A therapist should be a guide and not a judge. Attempts to ‘manage’ a client with fear is evil and narcissistic and should not be tolerated.

As a guide a therapist need not validate — find true and right — the client’s feelings: We are in that chamber because, face it, our feelings and thoughts and motivations and behaviors are screwed up. The therapist should absolutely respect that we feel as we say we feel and s/he should objectively respond. I realize that therapists are human and that they have feelings but as professionals they need be in control of their emotions.

Therapists should be the good priest in the confessional and offer solace and kind penance when hearing our sins.

Good therapy isn’t a debate.