I can’t believe his choice of words here - that he feels battered? How utterly painful that must be to hear from your therapist. He seems to give you just enough ‘care’ to keep you entangled in this dance of y’all’s. It must be so painful to have your emotions so wrapped up in this relationship, to have your world shaken from day to day, depending on his responses to you, or lack thereof. I hear you hang onto his every word, every gesture, every move he makes. I would imagine he might feel ‘put upon’ at times, due to trying to dance around any land mines that he might trigger. But to say he feels battered is much too much. You see him three times per week, right? And he indicated recently that he was having feelings around the amount you pay per session. I hear he is feeling resentful. Of course, I have no way of knowing that. Sometimes when resentment builds up a little at a time, then things like this happen: He feels ‘battered’ now. How horribly shaming. I can’t imagine I would be able to work through this one…but I do hope you ask him what exactly he means. You can’t really say that to a person and then move on like it never happened. It’s not fair to you - to lay this at your feet. And now you’ll walk on eggshells as so not to be ‘battery’. Ugh! I hope you do get the answers you need. I have a feeling he will, again, give you *just* enough to keep you entangled.