Keeping precise and consistent time boundaries was one of the strengths of my first therapist. I really don't like to be late or too early to appointments so I would usually turn up 1-2 minutes before the scheduled start and we would always begin exactly on time. I often feel that the session time is short but I also like to be professional, get what I pay for and don't ask for extra. He had a clock in his office that both of us could see easily and we both kept track of the time. No need for warning that time is running out or that it is up. We both would just naturally put an end to the conversation without any particular winding down, I pull out and hand the check to him, he walks me to the door, I leave exactly on time.

Current T (who is generally a much better fit for me, but it has nothing to do with the time) is more loose about the time but nothing extreme. As far as I see he often runs back-to-back sessions but is respectful about trying his best not to have the patients wait. Now that I see him on the same day at the same time weekly (before it was always changing), I know that there is a patient before me who leaves just before I start. T usually calls me in immediately after she's gone and sometimes makes a quick bathroom trip before we begin. From my experience, he tends to go over time by 5-10 mins in most sessions when he can -- I never ask for this but don't refuse either as long as I am not in a rush. We actually discussed his handling of time and it seems like he deals with it in a quite subjective way, trying to gauge if the client might use a bit more time and give it to them when he can, but also he would deliberately encourage not stopping when he finds the discussion interesting for him. For example, I've noticed that I almost always get about 10 minutes more when we are discussing relationships -- I think he loves that topic. I don't always engage in this subject very long because relationships were not my primary goal with this therapy, but more recently I do more as I'm quite satisfied with the progress around the original goals and open to expand and introduce new areas that we both think might be interesting and useful for me. The clocks in his offices (he has two) are not very easy to see from the coach without physically turning over so I just let him deal with the time (but I usually have a decent sense of it myself). There isn't any winding down or warning with him either, typically he will say simply something like "it is time to stop for now" or "this is a good point to wrap up for today", or just signals it with body language. Then I quickly get the cash to him, we say a few lighter words to each-other, sometimes he stands up and walks me to the door other times not. His behavior is very natural regarding handling the time, not strict but no extremes and no mistakes either.

I would not like if my therapists were any looser and more inconsistent about the time than these two, especially regarding starting on time. I also would not like if they tried to apply some sort of complicated ending ritual with me.