Psyberspace

60 Percent Of Psychotherapy Clients Felt Therapy Didn’t End On Time

This article makes sense to me from my experience.

Time is such a critical factor in psychotherapy, beginnings, middles and especially endings. People often want to wean off therapy by coming les frequently. I discourage that and suggest we make a focus & work on a good ending. Even so there are false endings! People come back for another go at it.

In Psychotherapy Online my experience is different. I have a more flexible time frame for “appointments”, while I stick to a maximum of one hour sessions for my email responses, the work can also be spread out in smaller exchanges and because I don’t need to make calendar appointments for email work there is a flexibility that finds its way into making a more natural ending as well.

In general, clients who reported that termination was on time were more satisfied with their therapy. Factors contributing to positive feelings about termination included perceiving the experience of termination as an expression of independence, reflection of positive aspects of the therapeutic relationship and a reflection of positive gains experienced in therapy.

“Results suggest that clients find terminating psychotherapy at the right time important and yet difficult to achieve, and that clients experience a wide range of feelings, many positive, during the termination phase, which call for a reconceptualization of the role of the therapist during this important phase of psychotherapy.”