This is a good analogy. It makes me think of how when I told T I wanted to play a song for him, he was like, "I'd feel really awkward if you were staring at me the whole time watching for my reaction." And I said (the next session): "Well, then you'd know how I feel all the time every session."

I've talked to T about feeling he has more power than me, and he said he feels the client has all the power because they can just leave whenever, and he couldn't just ethically terminate. I said that might be true, but he could change the rules or how he reacts to me enough that I'd (or another client would) want to leave. Like if he unilaterally decided I couldn't email anymore, for example, without us really discussing it. Or he could decide to raise his rate by $50 a session. Or wouldn't let me discuss a particular topic. And then he understood. And like you said about the frame, SE, he sets the time limits. I couldn't be like, "You know, I could use an extra half hour today. I'm not ready to leave yet." And he would say I had to leave. I think of once when I was sobbing at the end of session with ex-T (who was really strict on time), and I kept trying to talk more, and she was like, "You need to leave NOW!" or something like that. I'd like to believe that if I was out with a friend, say, and was really upset, that they wouldn't be like, "OK, we've paid the check at the restaurant, time's up, bye!" and leave me sobbing in the parking lot. Well, maybe some would...or I guess if they had to go pick up their kid or something, but they'd likely check in with me later at least, which my T wouldn't do.