ABSTRACT
Effective and therapeutic endings are a central part of the therapeutic journey, and need to be given due acknowledgement as an important part of the therapy process. The psychotherapy relationship is peculiar among relationships in that the ending of the relationship is at the very least implicit from the start; clients come expecting that the therapy will be effective and they will move beyond it and eventually have no need for therapy, or the therapist. The contracting and goal-setting process at the beginning generates an initial idea of what the criteria for ending the relationship will be. Generally, people do not enter relationships that are as intense or important in their lives as the psychotherapy relationship with the expectation that they will end, and yet as therapists this is exactly what we do with every new client we meet. Berne (1966) identi®ed three types of endings in therapy:
1 Accidental. Sometimes changes in a client's work patterns or circumstances mean that they are no longer able to attend therapy. This is an interesting category in that, although such changes do take place, there is always the possibility that such changes are not as pressing as they might seem, and may well represent some kind of unconscious process whereby the client is at some level seeking to avoid or withdraw from therapy obliquely. It is very dif®cult for the therapist to explore such unconscious acting out, particularly as the reasons given for such endings are often so plausible and reasonable. Needless to say, endings can be enforced accidentally and regardless of the cause of the accidental ending, the therapist needs to be attentive to ending as satisfactorily as possible under the circumstances.
