Interesting question. I see her behaviour as something which stems from her theoretical orientation, that she believes in the therapist as a "blank slate". Psychoanalysts and some psychodynamic therapists work like that, believing that their neutrality brings transference reactions in their clients. Have you ever asked her about this or told her you find it weird when she tries to hide a laugh?


I personally left a therapist I waited two years to see much because she didn´t want to change her behavior or adapt her ways of being to make me feel more comfortable with her style. I felt she was cold and distant and I don´t see the point in trying to enforce certain reactions by creating unnatural situations. Of course a client, and most people, will react to a person who doesn´t show emotion or who act cold in one way or another. It´s just a silly experiment to me, to sit and look at clients´ reactions to an unnatural behavior in their therapist.


Not all psychodynamic therapists work this way though but if you think of finding another T I would go for a humanistic/rogerian T instead. They work very differently and they believe in seeing the patient as a person, not a patient they should manipulate into certain reactions.