[LittleMouse]

Had a great T session this week! We talked about our relationship and its special nature. The session was so warm and loving and really made me feel good inside. I've been seeing my T for 3 1/2 years now and have made great progress. He is so nurturing and accepting of me that it makes me feel so good inside. But here in lise my feelings of 'CONFUSION". I know intellectually that our relationship will end some day. I will finish my therapy and we will part and go our separate ways. Now here it is...I FEEL ANGRY about that. I don't want to ever loose him as part of my life and I feel angry sometimes because of the boundaries of our relationship. I can see the ending of therapy but I can't or want see the end of our relationship. How can you love someone so much and then suddenly on day they are just not part of your life anymore. I feel sad about that and angry sometimes that once I leave therapy I will not have him as part of my life anymore.

Just wondering if some of you experience some of these same feeling and how do you deal with them. Do you talk to your T about the conflicting feelings?

[ECHOES]

Have you read "get me out of here" by Rachel Reiland? It's about her Borderline Personality treatment and includes the termination with her beloved father-like T. In January of the year she terminated, they decided tothether that by the end of summer she would choose a termination date. It was of course sad, but she also felt strong and ready. Her last several sessions were exceptionally warm and a time to look back at what they had accomplished, their feelings for one another. It was melancholy but beatiful too.

I am just getting started and can't envision the ending yet. I am sure it will be sad and I hope it will also include a time of reflection, a celebration of growth, and a sharing of feelings.

[Perna]

I terminated in 2005 from my T I'd been seeing for 9 years (and had seen for 9 years previously, in the 1970's and 1980's).

It is sad but when you are through with therapy and ready to terminate, the rest of your life takes up way more of your time and thoughts that are now focused on therapy. It's more like a great friendship that has slowly drifted away because each person is persuing different interests than like the sudden ending of a love affair.