ABSTRACT
A deeper understanding of psychotherapy would certainly include a longer look at termination. By terminating psychotherapy therapeutically we mean ending therapy with thoughtfulness and care. Th at is, taking advantage of the possibilities and avoiding the pitfalls often present at termination. From our perspective, therapeutic terminations involve planning, conducting, and concluding treatment with termination in mind. It means providing a treatment and a termination that accounts for the emotional and interpersonal impact that ending therapy may hold for a given client. A therapeutic termination brings closure to treatment and prepares the client for life without therapy or the therapist. For many clients, termination is a relatively minor step. It involves a quick jump from the consulting room back into the rush of the rest of their lives. For others, termination is powerfully reminiscent of days past, relationships lost, and opportunities missed. As such it brings with it deep pain and confusion. Still other clients experience termination like many other life transitions. For them it is a time of joy mixed with sadness, success tinged with defeat, hope colored by anxiety. Regardless of how a given client approaches the end of his/her treatment, it is incumbent upon the clinician to respond eff ectively to the needs of each client at termination. While many of these client concerns will be familiar and relate clearly to concerns discussed earlier in treatment, some issues raised at termination will be unique to the termination process itself.
