I think there are certain types of responses from the therapist that can inadvertently encourage more of the complaining behavior. Someone who is stuck in constantly complaining and resistant to suggestions for change might do well with a therapist versed in motivational interviewing techniques. In this approach, "resistance" is seen as being at least in part created by the therapist. If the therapist keeps getting "yes, but..." responses back to his well-intentioned advice on how to change, then it might be time for the therapist to change his approach with this client. Motivational interviewing helps the client engage in more "change talk" than "yes, but I can't do it, yes, but I have no time, yes, but that won't work for me" type responses. I think a therapist who can't think of any way to help a client like this beyond "come back to me when you're ready to work" might benefit from expanding his repertoire of techniques. There are a lot of good trainings out there. (I learned recently that the "come back when you're ready to work" approach was very popular in the 80s but not so much now.)

There have been times I was stuck on something in therapy, and my T will comment, "that's' the 3rd time this has come up..." and I realize I am repeating the same story again and again. My T can see this stuckness as a sign of trauma, perhaps minor or perhaps not, and he sometimes offers a trauma technique to help me get over it. "Would you like to do EMDR on this?" I think my repetition of the story is an attempt at processing, and that can indeed get stuck or derailed in trauma so something like EMDR could be helpful to shake that loose and let me move forward.

About 5 months ago I saw my therapist and was very much complaining about the same thing practically the whole session--my job. My T did try to get me off the topic to something else--I'm not sure why--but the problem was so huge, simply dominating my life, that I had nothing else to talk about. I couldn't talk about some minor thing in my life that wasn't bothering me. It really had to be "the job" or nothing. I probably appeared to be someone who was complaining, complaining, complaining... But I had never voiced my dissatisfaction to anyone before, I had just stewed in my unhappiness. I took T's attempt to change the topic as an indication he couldn't help me on where I was at with the job. I had to reach a point in my life where I was ready to do something about the problem, and I wasn't there yet. So I didn't go back to therapy for almost 5 months and I worked on this problem in my own way, part of which was just "holding still" and doing nothing. I think returning to therapy regularly and complaining about my job would have made things worse for me, made me feel more dissatisfied and unhappy with something that I had to accept couldn't be changed at that moment. It would have created or made worse a tension in my life that I didn't need at an already stressful time. I am very happy to now be through this impasse.

Information on Motivational Interviewing:
Motivational Interviewing