ABSTRACT
Relational patterns from people’s lives repeat in therapy, in a sense it is how therapy works as the therapist can offer a different experience, although clients can always engineer the familiar. Beginnings run the risk of being rushed through anxiety whilst endings can be evocative for both client and therapist echoing back to previous endings in each of their lives. A simple contract around ending may suffice in the initial stages of therapy, the nature of which will vary depending on the intended length of the therapy. If one looks at the therapy journey through a phasic lens, the length of the different phases of therapy will depend on a variety of factors. Major factors are: the client’s history of endings; and the client’s relational style. Western societal pressures leave us culturally programmed to avoid satisfaction and a process of withdrawal by rushing on to the next task without leaving a void for a need or desire to surface.
