THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PROCESS OF TERMINATION

AND RESISTANCES DISPLAYED BY THE PATIENT

Psychotherapists have long been concerned with patient responses and reactions to the termination of therapy (Peterson & Nisenholtz, 1994). This paper describes and discusses two of the most common patient reactions to therapy termination, namely regression and resistance.

In the body of the paper, behavior characteristics of regression and resistance responses are delineated and the populations that are most vulnerable to such problems are listed and discussed. Many of the psychodynamic features underling the emergence of such behavior (e.g., separation anxiety, issues of loss and dependency, unconscious guilt, etc.) are noted. The discussion also includes strategies therapists can use to work through these responses.

Regression and Resistance: Patient Responses to Therapy

Although termination of therapy is a significant stage of the psychotherapeutic process, Ward (1984) has reported that little attention has been paid to it in the literature. According to Ward, if the termination stage is handled successfully, therapeutic outcomes will be maximized and new patient learnings and behaviors will be maintained. However, handling this stage successfully often means working through patient regression and/or resistance behaviors that arise as the result of discussion of termination (Ward, 1984).

. . .
ance shrank and therapeutic progress was rapid and thorough. Cooper (1976) states that regression and/or resistance behavior is strongly likely in response to the announcement of the termination of the psychoanalytic process if the patient is not helped with the process by being allowed to mourn. Cooper states that therapy becomes more authentic and sensitive in those instances when both the patient and the analyst mourn the end of the process. However, he notes that other psychotherapists do not support this view; instead, they feel that you can leave analysis with both pleasure and regret, and that they are not mutually exclusive; therefore, mourning does not really have to be worked through. According to Cooper (1976), however, the entire process of the analysis bears heavily on the type of termination one experiences. In this regard, he suggests that the analyst who encourages more dependency, regression, and seductive intimacy is likely to encounter more difficult problems at termination, while analysts who encourage the patient to become his own analyst, will experience fewer problems at termination. Ahumada and Etchegoyen (1977) have discussed the termination phase of therapy in group psychotherapy. Specifically,
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Approximate Word count = 6196
Approximate Pages = 25 (250 words per page)

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