It's interesting because my T is strongly relational and takes the perspective that our relationship is real. She feels things, I feel things, and we have a bond with each other. I tell her a lot about how I feel about her, and she tells me certain things about what she feels toward me (things that she thinks would useful for me). I think this approach is the way that I am able to really get deep into how I feel about me and what assumptions I assume the other person is making. So in that sense, she isn't a symbol but a living breathing person. She has referred to it as a two person therapy, rather than the humanist client-centered approach. But yeah, in other ways she is probably more of a symbol, especially when I pile a bunch of my mommy issues onto her and then pick a fight.