Stroking the ego

Sometimes, it just feels good to know that I'm making a difference.  I have a lot of clients that I feel like I make so little progress with.  I have a client I have been seeing for over a year.  And it has been quite a year with her.  She has never hated meeting with me, but she has not wanted to make a lot of changes.  So, although she will tell me just about anything going on in her life, we haven't made a lot of progress toward change.  The last month or so, she has been slowly coming around.  It has been very rewarding to see, although she is very broken right now.  Last week she told me that Thursday is her favorite day of the week because she gets to meet with me and knows I will listen to her.  It broke my heart and made me want to go do some damage to her parents.  This week, she told me she had to give a speech in English class about someone she admired.  She told me she was going to choose me, but that she didn't know enough of my background to be able to answer the questions she needed to during the speech.  I almost stroked my ego by asking what she admired about me, but then I remembered my professionalism and asked her who she gave her speech on instead.  It made my day, though, to hear her say that!