Puzzle Bug you really have captured my experience entirely in your words. It has brought me to tears because you are so "dead on." My T unethically terminated and abandoned me. I've been dealing with it for 13 months now. The pain doesn't get any easier. I had no idea of the power my T held over me, as she acted like my friend. Yes a friend that I had to pay to listen to me speak. She was too close to me and decided to terminate me because I didn't listen to her advice about a purchase. How stupid! I was upset because she wouldn't answer text messages that I sent to her. I then emailed her and told her I needed space and would be cancelling our next weeks appointment. She turned around and the following day sent me a termination letter and specifically said that she has been supporting me for four years but could not continue to support me on decisions that were self destructive. She listed a referral to another one of my family member's Ts. She knows that was not realistic. I begged her for closure. I sent kind emails telling her how much she had hurt me and I deserved closure after four years of therapy. I sent exact quotes out of her ethical code telling her that she couldn't just terminate me the way that she did. Her response was to give me a thirty minute session but I needed to allow one of her colleagues to sit in on the session. It was terrible. I couldn't stop crying and I asked her if the real reason she quit on me was because of the purchase. She admitted it was. I was so broken and even told her during the session she deemed a closing session that I felt like the twelve year old child whose father committed suicide and abandoned her. She expressed that she understood that I felt that way. She never over me additional sessions or help with the intense sense of abandonment. I was suicidal. She never asked how I felt and let me walk away. You are so right that people do not understand the intensity of the therapeutic relationship. They think it's not a big deal and you should just get over it. I can't get over it. I will never fully trust another person as long as I live. I never want to feel the pain and damage that this person who has been educated and trained to help those needing help caused me.