Forreal or Forfake?

One of the top reasons I love my work is the search for authenticity.  I eagerly await the 45-minutes of truth hunting that I get to do with my clients. I may not find it, or they may not want to say it...but I love the work of sniffing it out. When helping another find themselves, and witnessing their experience of truth and freedom in that place is exciting, rewarding and truly lights my fire.  I think part of this passion comes from the feeling that I walked around as a shell of myself for the 1st 20 or so years of my life (that might be beside the point, we'll see). 
The reason I bring all of this up is due to a comment made by my one and only male client.  A 36-year-old man, recently divorced and sorting out his custodial situation with his 2 biological children and 1 stepchild.  He is uneducated, but highly intelligent and works hard in therapy.  I have been seeing him for over a year and we have established a comfortable and friendly therapeutic relationship.  He tests my ability to hold my boundaries as he asks many personal questions, but does so with awareness and respect.  The repeating theme with this client is his resistance to creating a social life for himself due to his lack of faith in others and low self-esteem.  Upon my emphasis that our therapeutic relationship provides a model for the potential of other relationships, he flatly refuses the concept.  He maintains that our successful relationship is based solely on the fact that I am paid to do so.  Of course I understand where he is coming from, which is why I can continue to engage in this topic and not take it personally.
Well, at least I wasn't taking it personally.
We approached the topic again of his sense of self-worth in terms of socializing.  We make our way around to his ease in socializing with me. And then he dumps it on me:
"But this is fake."
"This is fake?"
"Well yeah, obviously"

Ouch. It stung my whole being. I mean, yes, I still get it- but I think calling me a big fat stingy kike would've felt better. Fake is my dirty word. Fake is my #1 aversion (well, there's bugs but that's something completely different).  Fake is often my enemy.  And now I'm letting his version of fake get tangled in my concept of being inauthentic and so the twists and turns of the puzzling therapeutic relationship goes.  Now I work to divide up his stuff from my stuff and respond in a clinical, therapeutic and (in a perfect world), helpful way.
Let's hope the stars align.

Okay, that's it for now.