Thanks for bringing that article, pachy. I wanted to comment on a couple of things from the article:

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
"It's unrealistic to expect a cure for depression symptoms after four to six weeks of therapy... But if there's no improvement during that time, we need to evaluate whether you're in the right treatment for you."

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">That's interesting to me. So if 4-6 weeks with a therapist is not helping, then perhaps it is time to seek out another therapist who uses a different approach? For example, CBT instead of psychodynamic, or existential instead of CBT, etc.? Or perhaps it is just the relationship with the T that is not clicking, so give it 4-6 weeks, then move on to someone else you can get on with better? Or if you are not taking anti-depressants, and 4-6 weeks therapy does not help, then turn to meds? That short time frame is very interesting to me. I know here on PC people often post about not really getting on with their therapist and wondering if they should switch, but often they have given the T more than a 4-6 week trial. The article's implication seems to be that longer than that is beating a dead horse? I know with my first therapist, who was CBT, and would not treat me if I took ADs, we worked together for 5 months, and then, I guess perceiving that her efforts were ineffective, she suggested I go get drugs after all. So she waited a lot longer than 4-6 weeks.

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
"I had a patient in long-term analysis, she just wanted to go, but she felt like she had to be angry in order to leave," Bloch says. "She felt the only way to leave is to just set the date and leave being angry. It's not that different than the process of leaving home-often kids leave their parents feeling they have to rebel."

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">That's an interesting client approach to termination. It makes me wonder if I am doing that now. I have been feeling let down and a bit pissed at my T, and I feel a strong impulse to withdraw from him. I want to cancel our session next week, and since we don't have a standing appointment, I would have no further appointments with him. And I would just let it slide, and drift off, and I would be on my own. Am I being the rebellious teenager and trying to terminate in this immature way?

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Many patients with chronic depression hope to keep their relationship with their therapist for as long as possible. Lisa, 42, from Huntington, New York., likens talk therapy to "going to the gym."

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">I wonder how many therapists would allow that? I always have in the back of my mind that my T says he does not do longterm therapy, which he defines as greater than 3 years. I always feel like that clock is ticking. I have been with him 20 months.