This study examined the reasons for therapy termination documented by graduate student therapists. The closed case files of individual adult clients who had terminated their therapy experience at a university-based psychology clinic were reviewed. Results indicated that the most frequent reasons for termination documented by graduate student therapists were that clients stopped attending therapy sessions without providing their therapists with notice or reason and that clients reached a satisfactory termination point in their therapy experience. A substantial number of clients terminated therapy because of difficulties unrelated to therapy, seeking services elsewhere, or dissatisfaction with therapy services. Level of depressive symptomatology and the number of sessions attended differed across clients who had different reasons for termination. By addressing such client concerns early in the therapy experience, premature termination may be prevented.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.