It's Time to Finish Therapy
Therapy is a journey. While much attention is given to beginning therapy and navigating its early stages, less is said about knowing when it’s time to finish. This lack of dialogue can leave us wondering: Am I done? Should I stay longer? What if something else happens after I’m done with therapy? Terminating therapy is not a failure, but rather an essential and natural phase of the therapeutic process when approached with intention and care.
The Purpose of Therapy
Therapy is designed to support individuals in improving mental health, processing experiences, fostering growth, and increasing insight (American Psychological Association [APA], 2017). Depending on the approach—whether cognitive-behavioral, Internal Family Systems, art therapy, or another modality—the approach varies. Still, the overarching intention is to help clients live more empowered, self-aware, and values-aligned lives.
Therapy is not meant to last forever. The idea is to build internal resources and coping strategies that make the therapist less necessary over time (Norcross & Lambert, 2018). Just as starting therapy requires courage, ending therapy requires clarity, self-reflection, and sometimes a leap of faith.
Signs It Might Be Time to Finish Therapy
There is no universal timeline for therapy. Some people attend therapy for a few months, while others continue for years. Here at Counseling For Creative People, I make an effort to understand the client’s unique experience and craft sessions based on those needs. However, a few signs may indicate that it's time to consider finishing therapy:
1. Therapy Goals Have Been Met
One of the clearest signals that therapy may be nearing completion is the successful resolution or significant progress on the issues that brought you to therapy. Perhaps you entered therapy to work through anxiety, a relationship crisis, or grief, and you now feel more confident navigating those challenges. When your sessions begin to feel more like check-ins than deep processing, it could be time to reevaluate your needs. At Counseling for Creative People, the second session is most often dedicated to crafting clear, definable goals. Those goals are our roadmap and we can routinely turn back to the goals in session. That can give us a sense of whether those goals are met.
2. You’ve Internalized the Skills
If you find yourself thinking, “What would my therapist say right now?” and you can answer your own question, that’s a powerful sign of growth. The ability to apply therapeutic tools—whether it’s reframing negative thoughts, using mindfulness techniques, or practicing self-compassion—outside of session is a key indicator of readiness to conclude therapy (Bohart & Tallman, 2010).
3. Life Is Moving Forward
Another indicator is a general sense of forward motion in your life. You may notice improvements in your relationships, decision-making, work, or overall well-being. Therapy has likely helped you build resilience, insight, and direction. When life starts to feel more like it’s in flow, it’s worth considering whether continued therapy is still necessary.
4. You Feel Restless or Stagnant
Sometimes therapy plateaus—not because of resistance, but because you’ve outgrown the structure or reached the limits of what you set out to accomplish. Feeling stagnant, disengaged, or like you're “spinning your wheels” in session can be a cue that the work is complete or needs to take a new form. At times, a client may be ready to take a break from therapy or may even consider working with another clinician if sessions are stagnant.
5. You're Ready to Practice on Your Own
Therapy can be a safe and sacred space. But like any growth container, part of the work is taking what you’ve learned and applying it in the outside world. If you feel a desire to “fly solo” for a while and test your skills, that’s not avoidance—it may be autonomy blossoming. Therapy is most often one hour per week. There is the rest of daily life where you get to practice those skills learned in therapy.
The Emotional Complexity of Ending
Even when it’s the right time, finishing therapy can stir up mixed feelings—gratitude, sadness, anxiety, pride, or even guilt. After all, the therapeutic relationship is a unique form of intimacy, often more emotionally attuned than many others in a client’s life. Ending therapy can feel like saying goodbye to a mentor or even a surrogate parent figure.
This is why planned endings—sometimes referred to as “termination” in clinical language—are so important. A good therapist will encourage open discussion about ending and collaborate with you to design a thoughtful conclusion. Ideally, termination includes reviewing progress, acknowledging the relationship, and identifying strategies for maintaining gains. What we want is a “good goodbye.”
According to Gelso and Woodhouse (2003), the therapeutic relationship itself can be healing, and the way it ends matters. A well-managed termination can reinforce self-worth, closure, and confidence. An abrupt or unprocessed ending, on the other hand, may leave unfinished business or re-enact relational wounds.
When It Might Not Be Time to End
Sometimes the desire to quit therapy arises not from readiness but from discomfort. Therapy can stir up painful emotions, challenge core beliefs, or bring attention to patterns we'd rather avoid. In such cases, wanting to leave might be a form of resistance, not resolution (Yalom & Leszcz, 2005).
Red flags that you may be considering an early or avoidant exit include:
Avoiding sessions or canceling frequently
Feeling overwhelmed by vulnerability
Disliking your therapist but not bringing it up
Facing a life crisis and pulling away from support
If you recognize these patterns, consider talking about them with your therapist. Therapy is a place to explore ambivalence and work through avoidance—not judge it.
What Comes Next?
Ending therapy doesn’t mean you won’t return. Many people benefit from periodic “booster” sessions or return during new life transitions. Therapy doesn’t have to be linear—it can be cyclical, responsive, and integrated into a lifelong journey of self-discovery.
Some clients benefit from ritualizing the ending: writing a letter to their therapist, creating a summary of what they’ve learned, or scheduling a final “graduation” session. Doing so honors the depth of the work and creates a clear psychological marker of closure. There is an opportunity for creative exploration and expression when it comes to finishing therapy. This can look like making thank you cards to exchange, or collaborating on a drawing or collage that reflects on working together.
Conclusion
Knowing when to finish therapy is both an intellectual and intuitive decision. It requires self-reflection, honesty, and collaboration with your therapist. Therapy is not a destination, but a scaffold that supports growth—and eventually, you may find you’re ready to stand more fully on your own. That readiness is not an ending, but a new beginning.
References
American Psychological Association. (2017). Clinical practice guideline for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults. https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline
Bohart, A. C., & Tallman, K. (2010). Clients: The neglected common factor in psychotherapy. In B. L. Duncan, S. D. Miller, B. E. Wampold, & M. A. Hubble (Eds.), The heart and soul of change: Delivering what works in therapy (2nd ed., pp. 83–111). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/12075-003
Gelso, C. J., & Woodhouse, S. S. (2003). The termination of psychotherapy: What research tells us about clinical practice. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 40(3), 344–354. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.40.3.344
Norcross, J. C., & Lambert, M. J. (2018). Psychotherapy relationships that work III. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 303–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000193
Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2005). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (5th ed.). Basic Books.