I am guessing I'm one of the relatively few members here who has had a healthy, positive termination experience with a T so I thought I'd share.

I really liked and trusted my old T, but after about 4 years of working on my stuff, I began to acknowledge that my healing journey would need to include working with a male therapist at some point, in order to fully heal. From the point of first telling her that, to getting a referral, to making an appointment took me nearly a year, so there was lots of time to process the feelings. She was/is the first person I ever formed a secure attachment to, so stepping away felt impossible at first, but knowing it was part of what I needed to do to heal made it do-able.

What helps is knowing I absolutely still have her support, and she still cares about me, and that I am welcomed to return to regular meetings with her when and if I ever want or need to.

Tapering off has helped, as well. There was a time when I saw her 3x a week, but for the last few months we've met every 6 weeks (just to check in on mtgs with the male T, since I struggle to trust my judgement of him). We may stop the 6 week meetings by the end of the summer and honestly, I feel ok about it, even though I never dreamed I would.