ABSTRACT
Undoubtedly, the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, Solution-Focused, Narrative, and other time-tested ways of helping people do the work of therapy is important and life-changing. The research in terminating therapy indicates that best practice should include reflecting on strengths and accomplishments discovered and made in the course of the work together. What is more productive is shifting energy to successes—as defined by the person served. Using a solution-focused based question of “what does success look like for you?” can help to set up benchmarks that the therapist may come back to as the work progresses. In psychodynamics, that relationship is often contextualized as the therapist being a symbolic parent(s) to the person served and therapist experiencing the person served as symbolic of someone in the life of the therapist—usually a person with whom the therapist has a caretaking or troubled relationship.
