ABSTRACT

Patients are far more resilient than many therapists realize. The greatest consequences of incompetent therapy are that the patient abruptly quits the therapist or that the treatment process is unnecessarily protracted. Although these outcomes must not be taken lightly, they do not compare in magnitude with mistakes made in therapy with suicidal patients where treatment can be terminated abruptly by death. It is not surprising, therefore, that therapists tend to err on the side of too much caution, often inadvertently increasing suicidality and complicating recovery.