Speaking only for myself, but when a t announced he was retiring, I tried to stick with him until the end. Eventually we both agreed that it was just retraumatizing me. So I quit seeing him. At the time I was seeing other ts, but I went from twice a week with him to zero. I quit the session after he agreed that it was traumatizing. For me, it was a good decision.

And why wouldn't you be pulling away? Isn't that the purpose of not ending suddenly? To sort of ease the blow?

But the the F* it part of me is a fairly strong and powerful part. I keep her around for just such occasions.