Therapists are paid to make clients happy; not make clients into better people. I have a great respect for therapists who can do both but I have a feeling that they're less common that we'd like to think.

That is a rather subjective opinion, anything to back that up? The therapists I have dealt with have been primarily concerned about solving a problem that I had rather than placating me.

It is absolutely subjective and, in hindsight, not a very good representation of how I feel about therapists in general. I'd say that my statement, "Therapists are paid to make clients happy; not make clients into better people." is in line with "IT is paid to fix problems, not prevent them."

Now, I'm not at all saying that's correct but that's certainly how it feels at most places. I feel like the same is probably true for therapists. If they're not producing results the client wants then there's no reason for the client to stick around...it's more important to have a happy client that you can work with slowly than try to fix the problems quickly and them leave in the middle of it.

So what I was trying to get at (and got carried away with) was that it seems like the therapist is just reinforcing a negative attitude (Don't bother trying to empathize with users, this is how you are) rather than improve things...again in hindsight, the therapist is likely trying to get them to open up and comfortable so they can work on the problem but it felt like they were done seeing the therapist after having their negative attitude towards users re-enforced.

Everyone has empathy but it comes much easier for some than it does others just like how IT is difficult for some people.

This I very much agree with, I am more a INTJ personality type and it's taken a lot of cognitive behavioral therapy to teach me how to be more mindful and appear to be more empathetic. My wife on the other hand struggle with critical thinking while I excel at it but she is one of the most emotionally in tune and empathetic people I know.

Ironically enough...this is exactly the same for me. I'm INTJ as well and she's very emotionally driven whereas I'm the opposite in comparison.