Saying Goodbye and Ending Sessions in Counselling

This article shares about the importance of ending sessions in counselling. Counsellors and clients benefit from deepening their understanding about when, how, and why to end sessions together in counselling. Ending sessions are important for empowering clients and counsellors, especially with reinforcing the changes and growth made by the client. It may also be helpful to refer or transfer a client for further services. It’s beneficial to the counsellor because it can help with building confidence from understanding how they were most helpful to the client. It brings closure to the therapeutic relationship, addresses the feeling of loss and sadness that may come up, and distinguishes the different ways of dealing with mutual vs. individual reasons for ending the relationship.

It is important to understand when it is appropriate to end the relationship and counselling sessions. The timing for this may be appropriate because the client's goals are achieved, they are having difficulty finding issues to discuss, the counsellor and client are involved in routine nontherapeutic talk, or because there is a pattern of missed appointments. It's also important to consider what the termination goals are. They may be to consolidate gains made by the client, for reinforcing new skills or behaviors, or empowering clients in their confidence with the ability to self-manage. It's also extremely important to be sensitive to the potential loss associated with ending the relationship.

Endings are an unfolding process rather than a single event. It can be discussed early in the first sessions and brought up throughout the counselling process, emphasizing how the client benefits by becoming more independent, self-reliant, and empowered to cope with their problems in a way that is gradually less and less dependent on the counsellor.

In conclusion, if the counsellor and/or the client decide it is time to end their sessions and the relationship, there are two common interventions to consider. The first is to space out sessions and the second is for the counsellor to ask for feedback and reflection from the client about changes, gains, and improvements they’ve experienced, both during sessions and away while on their own.

Sources

Shebib, B. (2019). Choices: Interviewing and counselling skills for Canadians. Pearson.