How do you usually leave a therapy appointment?

How do you usually leave a therapy appointment?
(multiple responses should be possible. If you don't find one you like -that is what the other choice is for)

This is my biggest struggle with therapy. I usually leave in tears( not a crier in "real" life) , and feel bereft and a bit lost. I have progressed in therapy, and changed and met goals, but the end of sessions rarely goes well for me once I get out there on my own.

I usually feel heard and a little better than when I went in, less anxiety overall.

I leave feeling heard, but also often feeling worse than when I went in because of the topics that surface while I'm there. I suspect that once I've talked about these topics enough, they won't affect me as much.

Most of the time I felt heard, had new insights, and felt better than when I went in.


Occasionally it was some mixture of the other answers but I didn't check those because that wasn't a majority of the time.

I feel heard, have new insights, and feel better than when she arrived.

I leave my appointments with a a wide range and sometimes conflicted emotions and feelings. I often feel less anxious and heard but also frustrated and angry. I often wonder what the point is

I’m not sure than any of the answers really fit for me. In my real life I’m quite sensible and evidence-based, but in therapy (at least with the type I’m doing) I’m giving into something completely different, so I’ve been pretty much perpetually confused about therapy since I started 2 years ago. Sometimes I feel good, but other times I’ve felt angry or let down or even indifferent. But for some reason, I keep going back.

more times than not over the many years i was in therapy, i usually left sessions with a lot of conflicting feelings and feeling worse than when i arrived. perhaps much of the conflict and contradictory feelings was mostly related to being DID and also because of having a T who really was not competent in handling complex trauma properly. many of these feelings were about feeling unseen and misunderstood, feeling unsafe, and frustration. because of this, for a long time, i often left sessions in quite a triggered and severely dissociated state. i'm amazed that i even managed to find my way home safely after many of those difficult sessions.

Feeling heard.

That doesn't mean I always feel better: sometimes I do, sometime I don't. That's to be expected. Sometimes sessions are hard and I don't necessarily feel "better" but I do feel heard. I've had that hour where the focus was on me rather than the other chaos in life, and there is great value in just having that space to be heard.

I usually feel heard. Also, I often feel worse in the sense that I feel drained and fatigued after an intense session (e.g. from opening up/vulnerability). I've gotten better at self-care so I can recover after a session. I generally feel like my therapy has been worth it because I learned a lot about myself, and how to recognize maladaptive beliefs and thoughts.

I couldn't pick a "usually." Sometimes I feel better. Sometimes I feel worse.

Exactly this!

Feeling better, or worse; less anxious, or more anxious; heard, or unheard.

I almost always feel worse and frustrated when leaving because there are so many things that I wish I had said but was too scared/nervous to say.

I chose feeling fetter, heard, poorer, and other. The "better", for me, was simply because I enjoy psychology and the kinds of conversations we do in therapy, it is always stimulating for me because I am very interested. But talking with my friends, colleagues, or even here on PC can have the exact same effect, it is not really therapeutic. "Heard" because someone was literally sitting there for an hour listening to whatever I had to say, it does not necessarily means understood. "Poorer" because I always think the amount of money Ts charge in my area is way too much, it is definitely not proportional with the service they provide, especially given that, for me, talking with a friend or colleague can achieve the same. "Other": I most often felt dissatisfied and wanted more and something more effective/useful, why I emailed the Ts. I also experienced frustration and rage but never after an actual appointment, more around stuff that was going on in between session communications and mostly when I was either drunk or hungover during my drinking relapses. I always quit going to sessions when those things happened and became dominant because I saw no point in paying all that money for making me manipulated, angry and frustrated, I don't find anything useful in that, life already has enough frustrating features and there are enough jerks in everyday life.

I either leave resolute that I won't return because my relationship with her is a mess or I leave yearning to return because I don't know where else to go. I rarely leave feeling relieved or lighter or heard or calmer, but I don't allow myself to have those feelings generally. Actually, I often leave feeling like a failure because I needed support.

Usually by vertical takeoff through the ceiling.


More seriously , I'm usually calmer and more settled.

I always feel more grounded , calmer. Even if we are chipping away at a big problem I always feel better.

Honestly I just love the smell of his office. It’s like a old dusty bookstore !

Although I can feel heard and less anxious, lately I feel disconnected, disappointed, and angry when I leave. Wondering what's the point. I've been seeing her for years. Maybe it's time to stop?

Question for another poll: How do you feel heading into therapy ?

Feeling confused as to the point, frustrated, and poorer. Stopped going for that reason.

I also stopped for the same reason - there was no real point for me to go, anything I could not get in my everyday life for free. The conversations with the Ts were actually way too superficial and limited relative to what I tend to do with friends, colleagues etc.

I definitely feel heard, less anxious, and just better than when I went in. It is also very rare that I don’t come away with some nugget to ponder for the next week, often leading to new insights and realizations on my part.

I usually begin to feel enraged only as I get into the car. But sometimes that is "feeling better" than when I went in. Anyway, the most common trajectory seems to be "feeling better than when I went in" as I leap nimbly from the couch and exit from her office. Then as I cross through reception, "I usually feel nothing." As I slow to a shuffle in crossing the parking lot to my car, or occasionally loiter by the building door looking at my phone, I begin to "feel confused as to what the point of anything the therapist said was." Maybe it then makes sense that when I get in my car and slam the door shut, I am "filled with frustrated rage."