Does your therapist look at you at times with the 'therapists' gaze'?

I don't personally struggle with eye contact with real people. I don't struggle with it around the therapist either - I just don't have a need to look at the woman and it does not help me to do so. I can look at her if I want to do so or feel a need to do so. I personally only care about the oxytocin idea in relation to animals. I don't look at the therapist unless angry so I am in no danger of being oxytocined by the woman.
My mention of oxytocin is more as a possible explanation why some clients find it so good to look at a therapist. And why some therapists, consciously or unconsciously, seem to employ the stare so much. And I don't think all therapists are trained the same way. Certainly ones I talk to about it in my professional life do not all report the same types of training.

I had a therapist about 15 years ago that I only saw for a 2-3 of months. It was always a struggle with that one but I quit because she decided to sit in silence as I shook - we sat in full silence for two whole appointments and then I quit. (she said I couldn't just quit - she was batshit crazy).
The first one I see now has more trouble with silence than I do at this point. I would rather have silence than her talking at me. If she had stuck to questions I would not mind it so much - but her statements are pointless to me. (the batshit crazy one was not better at talking - I just wanted some direction in the form of questioning).

SD, I appreciate your use of oxytocin as a verb.

I am usually against verbing - but it seemed to fit here.

I think the verb should be oxytocinated.

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I have no clue because I never look at T.
For all I know T could be sleeping or messing with his hair or...

No oxytocin happening here.

It's amazing that people can look T in the eyes....

The other day I kept looking into Ts eyes while he talked ...to the point he looked away.. it was uncomfortable...he was explaining something....n I didn't wanna look away to be rude...or that I was not interested..so I kept on looking at him...n he looked away...sorry for off topic .

Same here...I look at my T when I get there and when I leave, but don't face her during session at all. My choice. So I don't see what she's doing....

I have no idea.. I rarely look at my T.

I didn't think of it is a purposeful "tactic", but rather a by-product of all the attentiveness, compassion, and intimacy in the therapy setting. At least that is what it felt like to me. And I had no clue as to how to handle that. So I yelled.

Sigh.

She does. It's one of the things I love most about her, but it's also very painful for me (the whole eye-contact thing).

Oh ya. I call it "intimacy bombing" because it's like she's dropping a nuke filled with puppy love and other therapist-related uranium. Especially with that gravitational pull thing she has going on with her eyeballs. She's like the snake from The Jungle Book.

I can't even reliably predict it. Sometimes I look up randomly and she's sitting there cheesing like : )))))))))))!!!!!!!!

To which I have to say, though, fair deuces. Some days when she's looking down at her notes I pull some very childish "neener-neener" faces. Occasionally she'll comment on my expression because I default to "resting ***** face" without realizing it but it's basically just a blank template for all the unrefined things it does when she's not looking.

He just looks at me while he talks to me or while I'm listening. I don't see any thing particular about it.
My son's psychiatrist has what I call his "assessing" face. When he's listening and it looks like he's looking at me and weighing me up.

Sometimes my T says "Look at me" and I usually look at her mouth when she says that. I don't pay attention to the rest of her face. I can't talk while looking at someone's face. But when I promise something or when we make an agreement she usually wants me to look at her. I hate that. And even then I look at her mouth - not her eyes.

Therapist gaze.... thats a new one for me. Can not say if it ever happened or not as I tend not to notice things sometimes.... ok so that may sound odd but I am known for been a strange puma sheep.

My therapist does it with me at times. As for me that gaze says "I'm attuned and really invested in getting what you mean". At the beginning I felt like she was analyzing me, but now I just perceive it as caring and focused on what I try to say.
It was totally new to me because I'd never had someone looking at me with such interest as person. I learned to be familiar with it and now I don't feel threatened by such gaze anymore, I find it nurturing instead.