ABSTRACT
For many patients, the weekly sessions with the therapist soon becomes a secure base, to which they have looked forward to returning, and therefore, they experience some sadness when they have to finally leave. As Bowlby proposed based on repeated interactions, the child develops an internal working model of its caregiver, our clinical experience suggests that some patients develop an internal schema of what it is like to be with the therapist in the clinical setting. Giving up these meetings must then create a sad expectancy, as the ending approaches, of experiencing it “no more”, as described by one patient. Similar feelings may be experienced by therapists, who have come to like a patient. These patients who negotiate the ending appropriately, tend to do better than those who have separation anxiety at this stage, those who end prematurely, and those who leave in an angry or disappointed state, which we hope does not happen often.
