[THIS IS A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION BASED ON PAST EXPERIENCE. I'M NOT LEAVING AT THE MOMENT]

Excuse my frankness, but this is a bloody stupid rule.

The patient thinks: "If I could bear to see you for four more weeks, I wouldn't be leaving!"

And if the therapist says, "It's bad for you to leave suddenly," the patient thinks, "What the **** do you know? If I trusted your judgement I wouldn't be leaving."

And if the therapist says, "You promised me four more weeks," the patient thinks, "That was before you deliberately humiliated me. Do you advise battered wives to go back to their husbands?"

And so the sad fact is, many patients leave without any kind of explanation.

Instead, let the therapist say, "Please, see me just ONCE more to tell me WHY you are leaving and so we can talk about where you might go next. If you are going to kill me, consider this a last request."

And maybe the patient might think, "OK, I've won the battle. She accepts I'm going. I guess it wouldn't cost me anything to tell her what a ***** she is."