ABSTRACT
It is quite remarkable that, although in many respects psychotherapy is the same wherever it is practised, in other ways it is quite different in private practice from both the public Health Service and the voluntary sector. We shall focus primarily on these differences as they run right through the therapeutic process, from the beginning to termination. Whereas it is commonplace for there to be a definite end-point in an institutional setting, especially when the staff member moves to another job, in private practice our experience has been that the practitioner remains personally available to the former client in perpetuity. Even clients who return to their country of origin, or migrate, may expect to drop in when they visit the city of the psychotherapist. We imagine that, if we were to migrate, some of our former clients would visit us in our new location. Whether such visits are professional consultations or more in the nature of a social call will depend on the nature of the agreement at the time.
