Thanks, everyone.

Endings are hard. I think maybe it might have been better to have a little more time to end therapy. We went to the last session, talked for about 15 minutes, and then we told him we were ending. We had the rest of the session to reflect and find closure. I think it is not enough and I would do it differently if I had to do it again. I would give him more time. I still remember when we told him and he just like stopped in his tracks and leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling, for what seemed a long time, then came back to us and said, "breaking up is hard to do." He has ended therapy with many clients, of course, and was professional and we had a very good rest of the session, and my daughter and I got a chance to reflect and say some important things. I would just give it more time next time, both for me and my daughter, and for him. So for anyone out there thinking of terminating, if you'd had a decent relationship with your therapist, give yourself and your T some time.

I think for me, there is some sadness associated with ending this relationship because I feel I could never be as close to this therapist as I could have under individual circumstances. It's hard to be so close to a therapist when you are there with other members of your family. You don't connect in that same intense way. There is always "the other" there, and so you act accordingly. This is especially so with my daughter, who is very reserved, so I held back quite a bit so as to not take up too much space, if that makes sense. So although I liked this therapist and found our sessions helpful, there is a bittersweet feeling of unrealized potential. I don't know how to describe it--we could have been closer, but because of circumstances, we weren't. I would have liked to have known him better and am sad I couldn't.

I am really a basket case today--very sad for multiple reasons not related to this at all. My own thread is triggering me even more.