Tomorrow is my last day with my current employer, before I strike out on my own.  I’ve spent the past 3 weeks saying goodbye to my clients, some of whom took it well, some of whom did not.

When you come to the point in therapy where you need to say goodbye to your therapist or your therapist needs to say goodbye, or therapy has accomplished what it needs to accomplish, you should do the following things.

1.  Definitely attend your last session.

2.  Don’t bring gifts–your therapist cannot receive them due to professional ethics.  Bringing yourself is fine.

3.  Discuss what was helpful in therapy.

4.  Discuss what you wished happened in therapy, including what you did not find helpful in therapy.

5.  Discuss what you want to work on in the future, with or without a therapist.

That way you both can end on good and complete terms and feel like everything was said.