can therapists get attached to clients?

I have been seeing a therapist for 4 months or so with a gap inbetween due to monetary constraints. I have recently ended the sessions, which was my decision, due to anxiety caused by paying for sessions being the main reason.
I have a good relationship with my t, we did some good work together, and I do miss her but have a avoidant thing going on with her......anyway, my query is does anyone think that a therapist can get attached in a platonic way to a client?
I ask this because I have a strong hunch that my t wants me to go back to her, I previously ended and went back, I know this sounds like me transferring onto her, but....she is needy in her own way, I am well confused!!

One t re-framed that for me when I was talking about attachment... she asked why it would be weird to miss someone you saw regularly for a length of time. I have clients I've worked with in the past that I still think about. There's a level of investment needed to be able to effectively do the work. It doesn't have to be much outside of the session, but generally gears are still turning at least for a few minutes between sessions...
I think t's enjoy working with some clients for various reasons, but they should be able to keep it professional. It should never cross to pressuring a client to remain as one. Nor should the therapist be using a client to meet needs beyond the basic business relationship the t was hired for (getting paid for their work).
What gives you the impression that t is attached to you? (no judgement in that, just asking).

Yes, of course. Attachment is a two-way street and it's only natural for a lot of people to become attached to others who share so much about themselves as therapy clients do. The work is very intimate toward the client's personal and most important goals. Of course attachment develops. At the same time, it's very important for therapists to be aware and deal with their own emotions in such a way that their attachment to clients never comes before the clients' needs. If your therapist wants you to go back as you suspect, I would hope the reason is that she sees your need and potential to gain more from your work together, rather than her own need for you to go back to her. You could think of it in the way a parent has to gradually let go of his child in order for the child to explore, learn, and grow into an autonomous person. Whatever you decide, I hope it will be best for you.

I suppose it could happen in rare instances. I doubt it happens much. I assume they like some clients and dislike some and are neutral about some. But that is different from attachment.
I don't want the therapist getting attached to me and trying to satisfy whatever they want satisfied by thinking they are all attached to and caring about me and so forth. I pay them to keep back. They can satisfy their need for love/being human elsewhere.

It happens quite a lot. Counter transference is more common than people think and often if a t doesn't get the right supervision ir support it can lead to ruptures or eventual termination due to their own attachment and lack of awareness around that attachment.
It is only natural for therapists to feel attached or to like some clients more than others. This is where boundaries will either loosen or tighten depending on which end of the counter transference they are in. It's very intimate work they do, they are only human too with feelings and emotions.

Oh of course. Ts are just human.

When I told T1 that I didn't want to see him again, he told me it felt like "being stabbed in the heart" so I would think there is some degree of attachment there. I try not to think too much about it because of the degree of my transference but I'm sure it happens.

Attachment happens. T's are people. I am not a therapist and even I think about my customers at a later date. I wish them well. I have customers I like and ones I wonder about. I care what happens. I don't see how a T would be any different.

Maybe for some. For whatever reason, my therapist manages to resist.

Yes, absolutely. And not always just in a platonic way. They need to be very careful.

More than likely. But she probably thinks it is unethical to say so.

Madame T never said she wanted to see me again. But several times she said she had missed me.

A trained T will gave all her needs met outside the therapy room.
A T nay feel the work us unfinished and suggest thus, but become attached to a client?? RUN

It may be that your T is simply encouraging you to continue because she understands you have some avoidance?

That said, I do also think that a good T will have a tendency to emotional involvement. I myself have lived a life quite detached from my emotions, from the way my T talks I can see that being in touch with her emotions is part of her being, for her being human is to feel her feelings and I think she is emotionally involved with her clients in a healthy way, I'm sure she processes it in her supervision.

Definitely. They're human. They can come to like the client, even at times love the client. The ethical ones try their best to remain neutral and treat a client...as a client. But that doesn't mean nothing is going on beneath the surface.

I think the "A" word is connoted in a very negative sense on this forum at times. Attachment is equated with unhealthy transference and neediness, when actually, healthy, secure attachment isn't about getting your needs met by other people; it's just a relationship of caring and respect that a person has for another person. So yes, therapists absolutely can have attachment to clients--very healthy attachments in fact.

That said, if you think this particular therapist is trying to draw you back into therapy because of an unhealthy countertransference issue, then that would be a good reason not to return. On the other hand, if this therapist in simply trying to encourage you to continue your therapy work because she hates to see you put yourself aside for monetary reasons, that may not be an unhealthy thing at all. Hard to know without all the details.

And that's almost impossible to know with any therapist. Unless you're a great therapist yourself and can analyze the therapist's unstated motives for wanting you as a client.

At any point in therapy, the therapist may or may not be motivated by what's best for the client. I guess that's why we have rules about ethics, and that's why therapists get licensed, partly as a way to protect the client and give them some sort of guarantee that the therapist knows what he's doing and is not going to abuse their power (and that if they do, they'll be punished).

As far as common sense, I can only rely on my own intuition if the therapist says or does something outrageously wrong or nonsensical, like wanting to have sex with you, or say you require at least 1000 sessions of therapy (only after you've spoken for five minutes in the first session.) Otherwise, very hard to know.

In a strange way, it was nice if therapy was like McDonald's Big Mac. Everybody knows what it should contain, you seen the picture, you know the ingredients. If it tastes weird, you send it back. If the cheese is missing, you get another. Ready in two minutes, eaten in one, cheap and bad for your health, that's the American way.

What we don't have here is the intimate feel, the long-term feel, for what other peoples' relationships are with their own therapists. We can guess and armchair quarterback other people's therapy situations all day, but without being in the room, without truly knowing both sides of the therapy dynamic, we're all just guessing.

But I don't second guess my own therapy relationship much because I have confidence in my therapist's professionalism, his skill, and have seen the effectiveness of his techniques play out in my own life. All the OP can do is evaluate this situation based on her own experience with this therapist and decide how to take it. Only she knows if her concern is based on concern about the therapist, or if that concern is based more on her own issues (she suggested it could be either; maybe it's a bit of both. Who knows?)

Male T's are most likely to feel for a client. Female T's tend to have less of that issue as they tend to feel more interest in dominant strong people.
Just my 2 penny's worth.

I think most T:s get attached in some way, there are only different ways of showing or not showing it to the client. The client directs his/her attachment to one single person, the T, whilst the T directs an attachment to several clients most likely and that´s why the attachment per se isn´t fully comparable.

I know a T can get attached to clients, you get a lot of "evidence" about it when you see a T for some time. My former T didn´t tell me straight out but as an example I heard she was sad when terminating me and we spoke on the phone. Even if she made several errors when terminating me, she in her way tried to cheer me up and to encourage me to find a new T. I know these actions came out of her attachment to me even if the termination wasn´t done in a proper way.

So yes, I do belive in attachment from a T to a client. When there´s a well-established alliance I believe you as a client will feel it.

When you say "she is needy in her own way" it does make it sound like the "attachment" here is negative. What types of things has she done that make you think she is needy?

I think there is a difference between attachment and not dislike. A lot of what people describe here, seems to me, is more the idea that they like someone. I can like someone without being attached to them. I think therapists can not dislike a client without it meaning the therapist is attached to that client.