Posted by gardenergirl on July 25, 2004, at 15:45:23
In reply to Re: Termination: Dinah, posted by Susan47 on July 25, 2004, at 14:51:58
Interesting discussion here. I especially liked Dinah's thoughts about internalizing the therapist. I think my former client has done that to some extent because in her email she repeated soemthing I had said to her once and said she reminds herself of that all the time. That made me grin ear to ear! And I know that I use phrases my T has said to me before. I've even noticed another Babbler using one particular phrase! (I love it!)
Regarding training for termination...we do learn about the stages of therapy, and the issues that come up during termination. In our CBT-oriented classes, we are trained to reinforce what has been learned and to use booster sessions as needed to help the person maintain their gains. In psychodynamically-oriented classes, we talk about how termination can trigger past losses, can lead to an increase in dependence and some backsliding as a way to try to hang on, etc. And they stress that it is different for all. In cases of long term therapy, we were told to start talking about termination early, to allow enough time to process it. In some cases, termination can take a year to process in long established therapeutic relationships. I can think of one client with whom the transference (maternal) was the strongest issue to work on, and I think the termination was the most powerful thing for him. We talked about term. for at least five months, maybe longer. I've had other clients who just kind of said "goodbye and thanks" and were out the door without significant distress.
I think the main thing they teach us speaks to how therapy can be more of an art than a series of techniques...every client and every situation is different, and the therapist has to be prepared enough to be able to work from what that client needs. Racer said this very eloquently in another thread. In some cases, therapist-client pairings are not a good match. I know I tried to do CBT with that client I mentioned above (maternal transference issue), and I got nowhere. I had to switch to a more dynamic therapy in order to see any changes. If I were a strict CBT therapist, I'm sure I would have referred him to someone else or terminated (actually in this setting there was no one else...).
Hope this helps. Your situation is unique as well. I hope you are able to either work through your pain with this with him, on your own, or with anothe therapist.
Take care,
gg
poster:gardenergirl
thread:370278
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040723/msgs/370372.html