ABSTRACT
Oddly, the issue of termination in family therapy is most important at the beginning of therapy, when the implicit therapeutic contract is being negotiated. Therapy is most helpful when the family is invested. Defiant families are resistant about attending therapy and are equally hesitant to embrace new ideas. For example, "We were blaming the school and the neighbors and his screwy friends, but we have met the enemy and it is us, is a difficult notion for them to accept. They tend to more readily embrace the idea that the school, probation officer, or other community representative is forcing them to come. More com-
monly, the disaffected father is participating at his wife's insistence. One way to clarify a family's investment is to ask at the end of the first session, "Do you want to come back?" rather than simply making another appointment.
