I really only give them two or three sessions. I know pretty quickly if that person in that other chair is someone I will feel comfortable with and whose style and insight is going to be workable for me. The three therapists I worked with effectively for years were all therapists I literally knew in the first session would work for me.

Several others I tried out and left (I don't think I'd use the word terminated since I didn't really feel I ever really got started with them). Why? A couple I really felt were an awful fit for me: too inexperienced, too unboundaried, too much self-revelation far too early, etc. More often, it was just a sense that there was no connection to that therapist whatsoever; it was like talking to the wall. I think they might have been really kind of hardcore blank slate psychodynamic types that believed in just sitting there and listening while I sat there and contemplated my belly button. Whatever the case; it was not going to work for me and I knew that, so I moved on.