After six years, hundtreds of hours, pouring out of emotions, feelings, memories, rage, shame, etc., my T and I agree I am reaching the end of my healing journey with him. In other words, we are talking termination sometime within the next six months/year.

He gave me a homework assignment that I need to work on and bring in next week, and I thought it would be interesting to get some feedback from the PC community: What would ending therapy look like to you? Where would you like to be as a person? How would you describe yourself - what characteristics would you like to embrace as a person when you're living life and solving problems on your own, independent of therapy/T?

I'll start the list:

• Confidence in ability to handle problems independently
• Self-love, self-worth
• Self-nurturance
• Emotional regulation
• Soundness of judgment
• Absence of destructive behaviors
• Absence of shame
• Feeling complete/whole
• Ability to embrace one’s childlike qualities
• To feel human emotions – laughter, tears, anger, joy, sorrow – within a healthy range
• Knowledge of what is true; insight
• Truth-telling
• Openness, vulnerability, social ability
• Ability to experience/learn from failure
• Pride in all aspects of who one is as an individual
• Acceptance of all aspects of who one is as an individual
• Ability to look “outside the box”; beyond “black and white” thinking
• Realization that moods don’t last, i.e.; I won’t be depressed forever
• “That was then, this is now” mentality
• Forgiveness starts with self
• Feeling that the journey undertaken was a favorable endeavor; healing has come full circle; knowing that one is comfortable in one’s own skin