[shelbykay]

How do your sessions end? Does your T say, "we need to stop now" because your time is up? Or does s/he casually but obviously turn the conversation to, "I hope you have a good week" or "any plans this week?" and that's your clue to leave? Does your T grab the laptop or calendar to talk about the schedule? Or do you keep track of time and let your T know when your time's up?

My previous T ended sessions by turning the conversation to something light like, 'well, have a good week.' The T I'm seeing now is the laptop-grabber. When there's a aplit-second of silence when we're at time, she grabs her laptop to talk scheduling. I prefer the laptop grabber to the talker. Do you have a preference?

[stopdog]

I see that time is up. I stand up, toss money on the table and leave.

[Elektra_]

when im talking tooo much she says "we need to finish now" other times i have a sense of time so im not talking much and she says "we can book the next appoint....."

[Leah123]

I'm very fortunate to work with a therapist who's semi-retired, working online so almost all our sessions are open-ended and I typically can end them when I'm ready, or if she needs to walk her dog or attend to other tasks, she'll let me know that and we take a few minutes to wrap up or schedule the rest of the session for later. It's very helpful to have that freedom and not feel too rushed, though I'm cutting back some this year as it was getting too expensive.

[PeeJay]

X-T would interrupt and say, "was this helpful? "
Non-sequiter. I hated it. New T is up front and says we are out of time.

[krisakira]

She says "Well.... " and stands up.

[Miswimmy1]

my old t would say, "we're going to have to wrap this up, but I look forward to continuing this next week." She was great though because she scheduled her patients for every other so if we went over, it didn't matter. We usually went over.

In my sessions now, I keep track of the time because I can't bear to stay a minute over and get up as soon as time is up.

One of us (usually me) finally realizes what time its getting to be (late!) and i realize i should have been in bed half an houra go and i said "t, i really really got to get going, its past my bedtime" or she will say " youre yawning, time to get to bed!" And then we talk for a minute about when we will have time to talk again, we say i love you's, we say goodnight, and get going eventually.

[wotchermuggle]

Originally Posted by stopdog

I see that time is up. I stand up, toss money on the table and leave.

Stopdog, I do truly love your unique experience.

For me, one of us acknowledges time is up, and we share niceties while booking for the next session.

[willowbrook]

Things kind of just start winding down organically, and then we both stand up, spend a few moments engaging in chit chat (light hearted joking about different topics, upcoming things we're looking forward to, etc), he walks me out to the front desk, books my next appointment, hands me an appointment card, we say our goodbyes and that's it. If I'm going through a rough patch, and he can see I look too shut down or exhausted for a full session then he might say something like 'Okay, how about I try and see you again in a week's time' and we sort of agree to end the session by silent mutual consent. I've never had to ask for more or less time than I'm given, and he's never had to say 'time's up'.

[tealBumblebee]

My t actually has a little timer on her phone that dings. Im not sure if she always had it but once i noticed it i've noticed it every session after. In my first few sessions we were going over pretty much everytime. I think the timer is set for like ten or fifteen minutes before because she'll always continue with another few questions after that. Then she'll wrap up the convo by asking what if anything i could take away from todays session or just wait until we've come to and end and just wont start a new conversation. She'll pray and then fill out the payment sheet over small chatter and i'll gather my things and leave. She has a really nice flow in wrapping things up.

[AllyIsHopeful]

Originally Posted by stopdog

I see that time is up. I stand up, toss money on the table and leave.

SD, this is random, i know; but what astrological sign are you?

[AllyIsHopeful]

My therapist is a schedule-grabber as well. lol I prefer that over ending it any other way- to me it is the least awkward. She usually keeps listening but grabs the book and said "When am I going to see you next?" There have been many times where we have gone far over, though because I'm usually the last appointment. One time we were there for over 2 hours without realizing it. It was so late, she has no sense of time most times haha..

[brillskep]

It can end in more than one way. Usually my T will grab his schedule notebook but that's not always my clue to stop - sometimes it is, other times he may just say our time is up or he may say we only have 5 minutes and when we're done he will just grab the notebook, but it never feels sudden and I appreciate that about him. I also pay him at the end of our sessions. Sometimes we have a hug. The leaving is clear because my therapist needs to come with me to unlock.

May I ask, what do you prefer about the laptop grabber versus the talker? Does it feel less sudden or more of your decision if he doesn't say anything? I'm curious about this.

Originally Posted by shelbykay

How do your sessions end? Does your T say, "we need to stop now" because your time is up? Or does s/he casually but obviously turn the conversation to, "I hope you have a good week" or "any plans this week?" and that's your clue to leave? Does your T grab the laptop or calendar to talk about the schedule? Or do you keep track of time and let your T know when your time's up?

My previous T ended sessions by turning the conversation to something light like, 'well, have a good week.' The T I'm seeing now is the laptop-grabber. When there's a aplit-second of silence when we're at time, she grabs her laptop to talk scheduling. I prefer the laptop grabber to the talker. Do you have a preference?

[lrt1978]

My old psychologist used to say " we have 10 mins left "

We would then wrap the session up, I would ask any questions and we would book my next appointment and then just chit chat as she walked me out.

My new psychologist, it just naturally comes to end, then we book my next session and chit chat as she walks me out xx

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We just seem to have a feel for the time. I guess he sort of has a subtle way of bringing our session to a close. I honestly can't think of any particular thing he says or does. We just arrive at the close very naturally.

[brillskep]

Originally Posted by 1914sierra

We just seem to have a feel for the time. I guess he sort of has a subtle way of bringing our session to a close. I honestly can't think of any particular thing he says or does. We just arrive at the close very naturally.

Wow, cool therapist! I really admire that kind of skill.

Then again, if this happens so naturally between the two of you, you must also be doing something right for that to happen.

[MusicLover79]

Usually I'll start to gather my things which is when he'll look at the clock. Other times he says I have to kick you out now in a joking way

[healed84]

T will get up from his seat, head to his desk and ask if I am scheduled for next week. Or, he will say.. So, what do you have planned for the weekend, since I see him on Fridays.

[willowbrook]

Originally Posted by 1914sierra

We just seem to have a feel for the time. I guess he sort of has a subtle way of bringing our session to a close. I honestly can't think of any particular thing he says or does. We just arrive at the close very naturally.

Sounds a lot like mine

[ScarletPimpernel]

I have a standing appointment with my T. She doesn't have a laptop, or anything with her during session. I guess I never exactly paid attention to how we stop the conversation...lol.

My fiance does text me 5 mins before time is up, so that helps both me and my T. Otherwise, she gets up...I get up..we hug...she walks me out...she says see you next week...I say ty. I find it awkward, but it works.

[Mactastic]

I can usually tell when there's about 5 minutes left because my T gets silent and looks off into space, gathering his thoughts. He gives me a little speech (a pep talk of sorts) while I wind down (therapy makes me really anxious.) Once or twice he's gone a few minutes over, I never feel like he would stop me mid-sentence or without warning.

As he gets up to walk over to his computer to schedule he typically asks, same time next week? Our actual goodbyes are very short, mostly because I'm feeling awkward and want to get out of there lol.

Originally Posted by brillskep

Wow, cool therapist! I really admire that kind of skill.

Then again, if this happens so naturally between the two of you, you must also be doing something right for that to happen.

There is no clock in the room except his watch, but he doesn't look at it that I've ever noticed. He has experience in teaching on the college level, so that may be part of it. We teachers can be pretty smooth and sneaky about bringing class to a close. We tend to conduct our meetings, etc. in a cycle of introduction, body, and conclusion.

I don't know. We have always been very much in sync with very similar personalities and communication style, literally from our very first session.

T says "We'll continue on Tuesday/Thursday". Sometimes this happens in the middle of a topic, sometimes not. Occasionally, though not very often, he winds down and once or twice he has summarised important things we've covered in the session, but most of the time it feels a bit abrupt. Once I looked at my watch and said something about how I didn't want to raise a new topic when there was only about seven minutes left, but T did not agree at all. I've started feeling that the therapy sessions are more or less a continuing story rather than a series of discrete events, if that makes sense. So having to quit in the middle of something bothers me less now than it used to do. (But I still hate it every time a session ends. 45 minutes never feels like enough.)

[anilam]

When time's up (I like to leave 5 min early), I get up, say bye and leave. I used to say stg like thank you, looking forward to see you on xy but my T viewed it as being ironic so I stopped.