Good question, K.

I wish I had clear definitive answers as to WHY this happens. I guess it all depends on the situation. It's heartbreaking to hear how often it happens, and how some therapists are so abrupt in navigating such a difficult therapeutic event, as my first T was.

First, I learned from my current T that termination of therapy is now on my terms. She hasn't set a time limit. She says I can take as long as I need in order to get there, and she hopes to guide me towards individuation one day with the understanding that attachment is necessary, and the corrective emotional experience in session through our relationship is necessary.

That brings me to one reason therapy is often terminated, as it was in my case with my OldT, and that is lack of experience with certain issues or practicing a modality that doesn't necessarily work for severe attachment injuries or complex PTSD. Old T practiced more CBT and my T now does psychodynamic/depth oriented therapy. Old T couldn't do the depth work. She didn't have the experience. (I didn't really know what issues I had before I started therapy, so termination was probably in my cards from the beginning. Old T should have recognized it sooner and that would have prevented the pain and the hurt to be taken to the degree that it was, but she was once again too inexperienced to do so.)

So, one reason for termination like this is "lack of experience/education."

Another reason I can think of is countertransference or thearpist issues that cannot be resolved. I do believe that this was a factor in my termination as well. I have VERY strong feelings towards my therapist and something told me that she felt something, too. I think she not only didn't have experience in what I was throwing at her, she didn't know how to handle her own feelings and got scared. She freaked out so bad that termination was then handled badly and it was abrupt.

It's not normal for a T to do after a certain amount of time. I hope that you don't worry about that. If you have concerns, I'd talk to T about it. T will be able to let you know what to expect as far as termination goes. It's a scary topic to start, but it's a good conversation to have.

Hope this helps a bit. I'm sure the others can chime in and give some other reasons, but this is from what I experienced.

I'm not sure why this happens either - it could be the content that comes up in therapy, what the T has experience in or is comfortable with, boundaries, rules, personal feelings, burnout, countertransference that can't be left out of the room.

Ts are people too... I work in a job where I work with many different types of people and there are some I really have to spend a lot of time with my boss going over things or they wear me out and sometimes I will pass them off to a completely different person who suits them better (if at all possible). I also try to purposely schedule people I will be with if I have to create groups and what order based on many factors. I still like the people, I still want to do what I need to do but sometimes it's not to my or their benefit.

I have been abruptly terminated by a P before, through e-mail, for "non-compliance" (to meds) after she gave me something that made me intensely suicidal and I asked if I could see her again and not take a medicine from that family but something else. Prior to that I stopped taking a drug that was similar for several reasons - this family of drugs just does not work with my body. She was giving me something new from the same family of drugs because the one I got released from the hospital with wasn't helping either. My T was pissed and we actually talked about it recently (in talking about how much better my relationship is with my current P) and she said that P should have never done that and when I said but I was being difficult my T said no, you weren't. Anyway, the P I was seeing had graduated out of her program like 6 months before seeing me.

It wasn't hard because I had no emotional attachment but I felt HORRIBLE about myself. And I constantly worry about my T terminating me. The reason that P terminated I think was because she just found me frustrating and didn't want the risk involved in my care - I was in extreme suicidal crisis at the time (just been released from the hospital). T was so pissed - the woman left me w/ no prescriptions (I had samples and the hospital had only given me a 10 day supply of what I needed - I couldn't get in w/ another P for about 2-3 weeks), no referrals, nothing. She just wrote me 'This is the second time you've done this to me, I've had enough if you will not continue to take xyz I will not be seeing you anymore.'. Well xyz was going to kill me, and the 3 others I had from that family of drugs made me want to die too soooo.... I wrote back 'Okay." Then she writes back "If you have a problem, call a crisis line". Then I never heard from her again LOL

Anyway sorry for my story this is just an example of... I really pissed this woman off and I didn't like her much either.

Unbroken/catalyst -

Thanks for the responses. That sounds so awful and I'm so sorry you both had to go through that. It never dawned on me before that this could happen b/c I have been seeing my T on and off for a really really long time. But when I read about it happening to others, it really tore at my heart when I tried to put myself in their shoes...just awful. I think I may ask my T about it. Especially since I am about to go through a medicine change and I really really need her around for that lol.