I was looking for articles about winding down therapy. I have had good longer term therapeutic situation for a while now. This is also coming into play because of logistical reasons. This article is pretty good but I don't think that it covers everything. https://psychcentral.com/lib/therapists-spill-how-to-end-therapy/ What I'd like to know is if the therapist can also feel a little burned out on a patient? For any number of reasons. Is there a normal time span for a therapeutic relationship that's on the longer side? Any frame of reference will do. I sure could use some input on this.
A good therapist is doing good self-care and so burning out on a client isn't a common thing (with good, well-trained therapists.) There are certainly clients that are more taxing than others, but that comes with the territory. As far as length of time, there's no "normal". I personally believe that, barring very unusual circumstances (really, really severe issues), a therapist typically should not be seeing a client for more than 2-3 years at most. In many cases, it's just 6 or 12 sessions these days. I hear stories of therapists seeing clients for 5, 10, 15 years... but generally these are probably not the healthiest of situations, and the therapist probably isn't really fostering independence and self-reliance. A good therapist will have a termination plan for therapy, and typically termination is 2 to 4 sessions if therapy has been going on for some time. Of course, it is always your choice when and how to end therapy, and most therapists recognize that.
Excellent response, Chip, and I think the therapist and I are on the same page. I brought up winding down and he was o.k. with it. Oftentimes, a person (me) wonders if my going over some things again can be tiring. I also think that if the therapist helps a client navigate a major life stressor type of event, then that is also a very valuable thing.
