i don't doubt that many Ts do feel genuine love for some, but not necessarily for all of their clients or even on the same level. love is such a general and simple word for an immensely broad and complex human phenomenon. because of this, i do believe that love is expressed and shared between all differnt people, in many differnt relationships and contexts, by many various means and modalities. and this includes what can unfold in the closeness of the relationship between the T and the client.

i agree, the shear concept of love is often so greatly over-analysed in the context of therapy and i personally felt that this over analysis definilty tainted the innocent feelings of love that were emerging for me in the context of my own therapy. that over analysis, and picking apart and justifying why i was having those feeling towards my T definilty contributed to experiencing feelings of confusion and shame. in my case, which i was not quite aware of at first, the feelings of love were emerging from the youngest parts of me, which were quite innocent in nature. even my T originally was not quite understanding of where these feelings emerged from and he reacted towards them as if they were coming from an adult part of me, and this resulted in me feeling very misunderstood, with a lot of hurt feelings, plus many needless ruptures and repair.

eventually, as my T began to understand where my feelings of love were coming from and that they were not a threat to him and his profession, he was more comfortable about openly sharing and discussing the concepts within the frame of the therapeutic relationship and even reciprocated his feelings of care and love back towards me in various ways throughout our years together.

similar to you, i came from a family where love was rarely voiced or physically expressed towards me by my parents or other family members. i had no problems expressing love in an adult manner towards my husband or other intimate partners over the years, but i didn't know how to express love from the young childhood parts of myself nor did i believe that my young parts were worthy of being loved in return. this is where love in the relationship with my T was so beneficial. it was the catalyst that helped me to finally understand that if i could have such strong and deep feelings of love towards my T (almost a perfect stranger in many regards, who probably could not even reciprocate the same level of care and love that i felt towards him) then in actuality, i should be able to have those same feelings of love towards myself, especially for my scared and lonely younger parts. this was one of my major personal epiphanies that occurred in my many years of therapy.

kudos to you that you were able to acknowledge and express your feelings of love and care towards your T before your final parting. that definilty shows courage and a level of personal growth in your own healing.