Love in therapy

I do love my T. I love her for her. I don't quite know how to define it. It's not romantic nor maternal. It's not like a family member nor a friend. I love her for her perfections and her imperfections. I love the way she communicates and expresses herself. I love how smart she is, how caring, how opinionated. I love learning from her, seeing her, being with her. I look out for her, protect her, and make sure I'm aware of her needs and feelings. I accept her for her completely.

She has expressed love to me verbally and also indirectly. She tells me her concern comes from a place of love. She tells me that she wants me to feel safe and loved when I'm with her. And she leant me a book of hers (her favorite book), and in it is all about love, what love means, how to love. And all the examples of love in the book are things she's done for me.

I have written her "I love you" in 3 different emails. I tell her she means a lot to me. I tell her I'm attached to her, don't want to lose her, and don't want her to abandon me. She knows exactly how I feel about her. She even knows that I always think of her feelings and needs (she actually tells me she appreciates it, but I still have to let her do my job.) She knows I appreciate her. After every session I thank her (even difficult sessions).

I was ashamed of love when I first met my T, but she has taught me that love is nothing to be embarrassed about

Not sure what can be gained by my answering this thread.

I love my therapist like family, I love him for forever. I care about him and his wellbeing. At times I've even felt in love with him, wanting to touch him badly. I think about him too often. It's a combination of selfish and selfless love.

idk. i don't think of 'love' when i think of my t. at least, if it is love, it's not romantic. i care about him. i know some of what goes on in his life and it matters to me (i've seen him for a while so some stuff has just come up over the years). he has expressed similar sentiments to me and when i was talking about eventual termination (husband and i want to move across the country), he expressed that he would like to still keep in contact with me in some fashion (this was something i was saying too so it's not like he just volunteered it).

i think we have a mutual respect and a friendly bond (though we're not friends). we share similar interests and whatnot and we have personalities that click which is what has made therapy effective for me.

I have to replace feelings for therapist with psychiatrist, because my psychiatrists have always been the ones to take care of my therapy, as well. I look up to him like a teacher, too, and I trust him 100%. It's a professional relationship, though, with boundaries that I would not want to be broken - I wouldn't want him to tell me he loves me and I'd rather not learn too much about his life. Maybe that's because if he shared too much with me, I might start questioning his judgement, since we are all human. It would also make me feel vulnerable, like wondering if he would stop loving me, for some reason. All I need to know is that he's good at what he does and that he cares about me - if he didn't care about me I wouldn't want to see him.

Now, when I was 18 yrs. old it was different. I saw my psychiatrist as a father figure and I longed for his unconditional love and acceptance and attention. I knew nothing about his life and that's what I needed at that time. The more you learn about a therapists life the more complicated the therapy will be. Again, telling me he loved me would have made me feel vulnerable. And I wouldn't want to put myself in the vulnerable position of expressing love towards my doctor.

I would never tell my T I love her, mostly because I don't. I like her,care for her but don't love her. I doubt very much that she loves me, and that's awesome by me!

I think it's important that there is love in therapy. It might not be the romantic kind, but certainly an attachment and a safety with that person is paramount. I think sometimes when we have someone who is giving us attention and making us feel worthwhile it can feel pretty special. Therapy is a unique relationship.