These stories of therapists making sudden changes make me sad. My therapist has always made clear his approach is aimed at enhancing my ability to take care of myself, but he has done this by explicitly increasing my awareness of ways I can do this. And he has remained constant throughout with his willingness to provide coaching outside of sessions. I have needed this less and less, but not because he has pulled away from me at all. I am just better at figuring out how I can push through whatever is stressing me.

It sounds sometimes like therapists don't get that they need to have conscious and explicit strategies to fill the gap or there is a chance that clients will be simply set adrift when the therapist arbitrarily decides it's time to give less support.