I’m really struggling with the fact that I have feelings for my therapist. I’ve been working with him for six months and I’ve developed a strong emotional attachment on him. I’m a 33 y/o female and have always developed romantic feelings for older, unavailable men in positions of authority. I have no idea why this is but all it has done for me is gotten me a lot of heartache. (Like, I was the girl in middle school who had a crush on her teacher). I actually had my first boyfriend last year but he ended up breaking my heart and I’m still trying to get over him. He was the only man my age I have ever had strong feelings for and it ruined me when he broke it off. Anyway, I think my emotional attachment to my therapist is getting in the way of my progress in therapy. I know that these feelings are called transference and it is fairly common, but I am too ashamed and embarrassed to talk to him about it. What if he doesn’t want to work with me anymore? What if he refers me out? It would break my heart because he is the best therapist I have had and he really “gets” me. I don’t want to ruin this but I also can’t ignore it anymore. I had an emotional outburst over something he said the other day because I felt like he didn’t care enough about me. I’ve been going over and over in my head how to tell him and I’m so scared. If he says he won’t see me anymore I really feel like I’ll spiral downward very quickly and all of the progress I’ve made with him will disappear. 😣