Therapy 101: Ending Sessions On Time

Common difficulties/challenges of ending sessions for new therapists:

• People pleasing tendencies

• Fear of interrupting clients

• Wanting to protect the client from feeling hurt/rejected/abandoned by cutting off what they’re talking about

• Difficulties with asserting one’s own personal boundaries outside of work

• Still in a developmental stage of anxiety/worry/fear/more focus on the client (which is totally normal and appropriate for the early stages of being a therapist)

Core themes and questions to consider with ending sessions on time:

• What are your client’s personal boundaries?

• What is your client’s personality like around time? Are they always on time? Consistently late? Etc.

• Does the client want me to take charge and end the session?

• Does the client take charge and end the session?

• Does the client people please and worry at the expense of their own healing? Is this a relational pattern?

Statements and questions you can try out:

• Our time is up…

• It looks like our session is going to end soon. What are you going to do after?

• We have about X minutes left…

• Just a reminder we have about X minutes left…

• Thank you for sharing everything you did today,

• Before we wrap up,

• Let’s start winding down now…

• In between our next session, what’s one thing you could do to continue X?

• Before we end, did you get everything you needed from today’s session?

• Did you feel heard and understood today?

• Did we get to talk about everything you wanted to talk about?

• Why don’t you write that topic down so we can revisit it and discuss it at the beginning of our next session?

Things you could do:

• Bring up endings at the beginning of treatment and session

• Reminding yourself of your role as a therapist

• Reminding yourself what the container of therapy is

• Set a timer for yourself

• Give clients a warning before ending a session (vs. abruptly ending)

• Nonverbal forms of communication to end a session including: stand up, walking toward the door, looking at the clock

• Summarize your observations or a concise reflection of the session

• Ask clients how they prefer to end session. “How would you like me to remind you sessions will end soon?”

Questions to reflect on:

• How do I end sessions?

• Do I end sessions on time? Over time? Undertime?

• How do I feel when I go over time with a client?

• Are there certain clients I tend to go over time with? If so, what are the common traits/feelings/experiences?