My therapy hasn't been about validation, or similar to your experiences although I do agree therapists are not "in it" with clients. For me, I don't want that. The only validation my therapist has provided is he has encouraged me to take risks to get what I want, to focus on myself, and to understand myself and the sometimes baffling world around me. I don't really need validation because my therapy is focused on my internal world and there's nothing either good or bad about it, it's more an exploration of what I've been through, how it's affected me, and how I want to change. And then how I have changed, and what that means to me. Therapy for me is also self care because I work in a stressful and painful area of law.