![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by shortelise on February 23, 2004, at 13:15:19
I wonder if you would write about termination, the stages, expected feelings, and how a patient might expect to feel at the end.
Thanks
ShortE
Posted by pegasus on February 23, 2004, at 14:55:49
In reply to Erica Schmidt - termination, posted by shortelise on February 23, 2004, at 13:15:19
Good topic! I'd also be interested to hear what Ms. Schmidt things about terminations other than gradual agreed upon endings.
Obviously, I'm motivated by my recent experience of a T moving away. It felt like such a struggle, where I wasn't ready, wasn't done. And he wanted it to be ok for him to leave, so he didn't hear a lot of it. At one point he said, maybe with a little exasperation, "This is *life*".
My new T says that therapy isn't supposed to end the way that one did, and that even if he's a good guy who did the best thing he could, it was still wrong for me that it ended that way.
So, I guess my question is, is therapy really just life, and we should expect the unexpected because our Ts have lives too? Or is it something we should be able to count on? It seems constructed to be the latter, while realistically it ends up being the former.
- p
Posted by Dr. Bob on February 25, 2004, at 2:31:51
In reply to Erica Schmidt - termination, posted by shortelise on February 23, 2004, at 13:15:19
Termination is a process, and it varies considerably from person to person. It usually begins with some awareness that you've achieved important goals of therapy and are feeling more able to handle things. This confidence can be considered and explored, people often go back and forth a lot between feeling better and more confident and competent to feeling less able and more needy. But overall, the movement is in a forward direction and optimally both therapist and client are in basic agreement about it. In the course of termination, there is often a review of what's been accomplished and what hasn't as well, many of the old feelings may be revived, usually in shorter and less intense forms, and old anxieties and fears surface as well. Re-examining these with an eye toward ending therapy can be very reinforcing of achievements. With termination, there are many and varied feelings -- positive ones about the achievements of therapy, the hard work that has paid off, the new opportunities one has because of increased personal freedom and strength; and there are negative feelings as well, about what therapy has not been able to provide, about the lost opportunities, sadness at leaving such an important relationship.
Erika Schmidt, LCSW
Posted by shortelise on February 26, 2004, at 2:43:31
In reply to from Ms. Schmidt: termination, posted by Dr. Bob on February 25, 2004, at 2:31:51
thank you for answering my query.
ShortE
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Psychology | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.