This came up on another thread and I was curious: if you ended therapy, how did you know when to end it? Or, how do you think you'll know when to end it - how do you envision the circumstances under which you would know it was time to do that?

I'm not talking about involuntary termination or leaving a bad therapist or switching therapists here; I'm talking about effective therapy that seems to have run its course. How do you know it's time to end? Or do you think the therapist will know and tell you?

For me, I think it would be when I feel happy and comfortable in a therapist's office, when I want to go. It's the discomfort and tension that seem to produce anything helpful out of it for me (I must be descended from oysters). I am betting this is not a standard point of view.