Recently found the first friends that i put that level of trust into and I can not explain how much it is way different than a therapist. Your partner holds a special place, but that also comes with alot of its own issues. For me there was alot of extra pressure purely because they are the one i care about the most. That hindered me from being as open as i wanted in certain situations and could not stay true to neither them nor myself. Having friends that you trust enough to do that with but where the stakes are “lower” makes that way easier. A therapist could do that but its usually way more time consuming, expensive and less fulfilling than having people that already know and thay respect you to whom you can open up and discuss with. It is also just way more “real”, heart-to-heart and human in a way a therapist can not be.