The final session of psychodynamic psychotherapy for satisfied and unsatisfied clients who initiate the end of treatment.

We compared the occurrence of termination behaviors in final sessions of 10 cases where clients stated that they had achieved their goals in therapy (satisfied cases) and five cases where clients expressed dissatisfaction with the therapy or therapist (unsatisfied cases). In all cases, treatment involved individual open-ended psychodynamic psychotherapy, and clients initiated the ending of treatment. In the satisfied cases, therapists and clients mutually engaged in many termination activities (e.g. described helpful aspects in therapy, anticipated challenges in the future). In contrast, in unsatisfied cases, therapists initiated a review of the therapy, noted challenges, suggested future coping strategies, and expressed appreciation for the client's work, whereas clients did not actively participate in the review. Implications for research, training and practice are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]