does telling your t stuff ever upset them

My T emailed me that I touch her deeply and thanked me. It makes me feel so happy but I don't know how to reply.

but i think she probably expected me to say it felt good. and i didnt.

not necessarily. ive had many clients who feel uncomfortable when people show that they care....i bet the only expectation she had was that you would be honest. and you didnt let her down

My T has never cried with me, she is pretty good at holding her emotions and trying to be objective...not in a cold way but just in a calm way. However one session not too long ago when talking about certain things I am pretty sure I could see sadness and almost tears in her eyes and it moved me.

My therapist is a sponge. This characteristic has provided a very safe frame to purge some toxic stuff without fear.

I wouldn't wish some of the things that happened to me on my worst enemy and sometimes I feel as though I just exude contamination. My therapist has normalized almost all of these feelings and experiences by just being there, steady and unchanged.

I completely understand when others are touched by their therapist expression of emotion, however for me that would have been close to catastrophic. I would have felt responsible for his response and withheld I'm sure. He didn't enter the spiral with me but pulled me out of it.

Mine is relatively good at pushing when I need it.
She figures out when I start dissociating- which is odd, because I'm pretty sure I don't pervade any particular nervous tics.
But once I start letting my mind wander, she pulls it back in- without me getting emotional.
Her stoicism is much appreciated, as I'm sure if she started to cry I'd probably leave and never come back =\

Since I'm relatively new to the forums here, I'm not sure if this will seem off-beat, but peridot, I hope that all of humankind treats you with love and compassion after having to endure such a vile and heartbreaking experience. I can scarcely conceive of something more evil than what was done to you, and so can absolutely relate to your T's rage-through-tears reaction upon hearing about it. I even had the impulse to hug the computer when I read it. Seriously, I hope you receive lots of hugs in life (as well as anything else you might need). Although merely virtual, I'm sending a few your way now (hope that's okay)...

To respond to the topic in general, only my last T ever shed tears in session with me. I do second stormyangels' post though since she became emotional for different reasons, often leading to a role-reversal where I was suddenly taking care of her feelings. The first time she cried, it was because of "the remarkably beautiful way love people" (a lovely compliment, of course), though the second time, it was in reaction to something I wrote about her in my therapy journal (i.e., that I had sensed a kind of restrained jubilation when she said something to me at the end of a session that even she anticipated would be hurtful to me). These tears made me feel like such a complete, careless jerk, so I expressly retracted the statement written in my journal and apologized for the perceptual misfire.

[i]Tears were not the only way my T expressed being "upset" in session, however - she straight-up yelled at me once for saying something condescending toward her, for example. Since I appreciated the authentic response in a way - and because I really did deserve it - it wasn't something I held against her. (Not I was not always so forgiving...)