I've cried quite a few times over the years and I've not experienced my various t's crying at the same time. With my current T, he teared up a little when I was talking about how I wished I'd received more acknowledgement for the good things I've done-- I think I was talking about my childhood but it also applies in adulthood. I'm not expecting a ticker tape parade but as an adult I was in a space wishing for more positive feedback in my personal and professional life.

I remember he said, "I didn't get enough 'atta-boys' either," and I interpreted that as touching off a small place of sadness for a similar lack of positive experience. His face shifted into a fleeting look of sadness as it crossed, and he wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.

I said "other" in the poll because I don't see it as something negative for sure, but am also not convinced it was something positive. Long before this, I've known that certain experiences I have had are understood by him, that fewer have similar things that relate to his own life. So there is no impact on me knowing he understands, or knowing he has experienced something vaguely in the neighborhood in his own life. The emotion was mild in the room, even though that might have been the first and perhaps only time he's been that teary, I don't see tears as anything special compared to other emotional responses. I don't mind or seek emotional responses in my therapy. If the T has an emotional response (assuming it isn't expressed in an intense or inauthentic to me way), that's fine but nothing that improves my well-being per se. To me it's much more important to feel understood than to feel he has an emotional reaction to it.