Lately when I start to get angry at The Therapist, I instead wonder what it must be like for the clients who might’ve had situations similar to whatever mine was, but instead of harshly and abruptly terminating them, their therapists were kind and careful.
It must be very nice and comforting to have a noble kind of counselor who would go the distance with his client and be kind through the end of therapy.
I wish my therapist had done that with me. He was impatient to get rid of me. I think he must’ve been disgusted with me or hated me. After all that time it was shocking and so very painful.
But what if instead of behaving badly, my therapist had given me a couple of nice termination sessions and let me have some input into what we discussed in them?
Or what if he had still terminated me meanly but then realized he had hurt me by doing that, and instead of ignoring me and pretending that I never existed, he had reached out and comforted me and wished me a great future?
What if instead of threatening me or letting his poorly behaved boss threaten me, he had dealt with me respectfully?
Some clients get that kind behavior from their therapists, even at the end, and they are lucky. I wish my therapist was kind like that.