CathInfo.com

If priests get too familiar with the faithful on a natural level, it might make them more reluctant to confess sins to him, and/or they might be less likely to take his direction seriously.

Whenever possible, I avoid going to confession to priests whom I know for that very reason.  It can get awkward.

I seek out priests with whom I'll never interact outside the confessional.

Me too Simpleman.
But here is another aspect to confession that I have never heard a comment about.
'What must it be like for women having to confess to men?

Recall many years ago, waiting in a long Confessional line which included many ladies, shortly before Mass.  Father Hogan was the confessor.

I didn’t think I would make it, until Father stuck his head out of the Confessional and said:

”I’ll take the next (3) men.”

😊

Recall many years ago, waiting in a long Confessional line which included many ladies, shortly before Mass.  Father Hogan was the confessor.

I didn’t think I would make it, until Father stuck his head out of the Confessional and said:

”I’ll take the next (3) men.”

😊

... many women definitely think of Confession as counseling, spiritual direction, and psychoanalysis, but the priest should learn to sense when it's ramping up and put a stop to it with "just the sins and the number please for now, since the line is getting long before Mass and I'd hate to see someone miss out on Holy Communion by going too long.  I'll be back in the Confessional afterwards if you need additional direction."

Men tend to be more sin, #, sin # ... and receive absolution, though there are some exceptions, especially among the scrupulous.

I recall Fr. Alphonsus when preaching his missions would tell people that no General Confession should ever take more than 5-10 minutes at the most, since there are only 10 commandments, and you just mention the sin, #, sin #, etc. ... receive absolution.  He had some saying about "be brief, be blunt, be gone"

BTW, I've always tried to adopt the attitude of imagining that you're someone else judging the penitent, i.e. how you would describe and characterize the sin to a priest if someone ELSE had done it, "Father, this guy here did [this, that, or the other thing."  It actually helps create a bit of additional objectivity, filtering out some nonsense that could be due to an excessively subjectivist or introverted perspective, including churn about scrupulosity, attaching excessive or too little culpability, etc.  If your friend or relative had committed these sins and you were in charge of telling the priest and accusing THAT individual in Confession, how would you describe and characterize it, how would you confess that other person's sin to the priest.  It changes your persepctive a little bit to something more objective.