How do you talk to a friend who is so afraid of emotions that he is tries to rationalize/repress yours?

By "rationalize," I mean he is always trying to explain away feelings or dismiss them altogether. He is not a close friend, yet, more of a hang-out buddy. We go out to the movies, the opera, lecture/discussions of film, dinner, etc.. He is interested in how I am doing and asks great questions, but when I tell him he goes into rational-emotive psychological theory, blah blah blah, in I think an attempt to rescue me. He likes me a lot, I know. And we are about to go on a mini-vacation together to beautiful upstate NY (Ithaca). I like him too, but I am dreading the four hour drive from NYC bec. I just don't want to have any more of these "this is what's wrong with your feelings" kind of discussions. I have called him on it before, esp. since he is actively working on healing his codependency/control issues, So am I. Given his past, I can understand his newfound zealousness for rational-emotive theory. But I find this stuff extremely repressive. Where is the happy medium?