I was telling the receptionist at his former practice about a homeless man startling me in the parking lot by knocking on the window of my driver's side door as I was trying to park. I'm not afraid of homeless people, but this seemed aggressive and violating of my personal space. My T came into the waiting room to fetch me and caught the tail end of the conversation. He offered to walk me to my car afterwards and I accepted.

I think what was helpful to me about this interaction is that I saw my T's sort of unfiltered reaction, and his fierce protectiveness that I don't think was necessarily about me. Although we had most of the conversation back in his office, I thought his concern was overblown and he said he would walk me out, and do it everyday until the end of time (okay, I'm exaggerating here). But after that time, he didn't offer and I didn't ask. I didn't want it although it felt like a normal interaction in the 3 minutes out to the car.

I think before the next session, he'd gotten a grip on his instinct and dialed it back. But I was in a transition at the time where I could notice a difference in myself between a reaction and a response, and seeing it in him was really instructive. I didn't find it a bad thing that he wanted to protect me, but it seemed clear to me that this was about him needing to protect me. It was also useful to think about in the context of having adults in my life when I was a kid who didn't protect me.

So the experience was helpful to me in every way but the actual thing itself-- the walking me to my car.