So in yesterday's session, I was discussing a particular topic regarding my daughter, and my T asked if he could share a comment (prefaced by "Since you're already crying," which I think may be one of the worst transitions I've ever heard, from a T or otherwise!). He asked if maybe my own parenting struggles helped me to understand those of my mom more, like why she couldn't be the mother I needed in certain areas.

It's a topic that he's brought up before, and the first time he really pushed it, we ended up in a bit of a rupture. In that case, it was about forgiving my mom. And he's brought up something similar a few times since, including yesterday. He's always the one to bring that particular topic up, not me. (He generally lets me lead sessions in whatever direction I want to go, though will ask questions, give feedback, etc.).

I don't want to go into all the details of this particular topic or why forgiveness and understanding might not be the right thing for me, at least right now.

But I'm curious as to whether other people's T's have what almost feels like an agenda, a topic they bring up repeatedly, even if the client has made it clear that they aren't interested or aren't ready to talk about it. And something where the T seems to have a clear opinion in what you should be feeling about it, not something general like "you haven't really talked about what high school was like for you" (giving a random example).

If this has happened, how did you deal with it? I want to bring it up with him, but I also don't want to have to spend a bunch of time trying to justify why I don't want to follow his agenda. When there are other important, timely, fairly pressing things I want to talk about. Even yesterday, at one point, I said something like, "Can we go back to talking about my own experience of parenting?" I felt that we'd been heading down an important path, and he veered us off course.

Anyway, just curious about other experiences. Even if you'd rather not be specific about the actual topic that your T was pushing.