On root causes, I think they can be generally useful. I know they’re important to you, LT, but what has often struck me is how detailed they are in your case. It’s often something like “X said this and it reminded me of when Y happened when I was 3 and so I reacted Z way.” And then the focus remains that highly specific root cause, not the present moment. Whereas for me a root cause might boil down to “my mother was not as emotionally available as I would have liked her to be” rather than specific instances, and then there’s not much to be done with that except try to keep it from my affecting my present.

Probably to a certain point that level of detail suits you and helps you, maybe is characteristic of your OCD. But I think it adds to the stuckness. And in that sense Dr. T may be better fit for you than a talk therapist, because he’s not interested in root causes and isn’t trained to be. Even a good talk therapist, though, will start pushing at stuckness.

I do think, having read this board for seven years now, that trying to get a therapist to be the therapist we want is usually a path to unnecessary pain.