Hi Everyone,

I don't reach out here as often as I should, but I really need some support right now. I recently graduated from college and am in the middle of the highly-stressful process of trying to find a teaching job. Due to the fact that I am no longer an active student at my university, my T and I will need to terminate before August of this year.

I know that there have been a billion and one different threads about terminating therapy, but I'm specifically wondering if anyone has any advice about how to cope with the emotions that come with terminating a really close, really positive therapeutic relationship.

To speak less matter-of-factly and more emotionally, losing my T feels like losing one of the most important people in my entire life. He came into my world at a time when I truly believed that nobody could reach me. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that I could ever be this okay...never did I believe that I could build such strong and powerful relationships with people in my actual life. We have had so much success together and the relationship is overwhelmingly positive.

I love him very much and am so grateful for our work together.

But the grief...

Oh my goodness. The grief.

I want to face this parting courageously and with the confidence I need to go out into the world without him...but I just don't feel those things. Even more than I want to be brave like that, I want to cling to him. I want to keep him. I don't feel like our work is finished--this is not my choice. I am not happy that it's out of my control, but there is nothing I can do to change it.

How do I do this? It feels like the hardest thing I'll have to do...and that's saying something. We have dug right into the worst things I have ever experienced and this still feels like it's going to be harder than all of it.

I feel like I have to cry a lot.

I want to take care of myself. If you don't have any advice regarding how I might be able to cope better with this, it's okay. But please tell me I'm not the only one who knows how painful this is.

I will miss him so, so much.