Termination of Therapy

an 18-year-old High school student currently in 11th grade. I will explain what termination is as well as its different aspects as practiced in the social therapy context. I will base my discussion on professional literature review and my personal experience as a social worker intern at Queens Satelight High school. Client Overview Shamim is an 18-year old immigrant from Bangladesh, South Asia. She is in 11th grade in High School. However, Shamim is very well behaved and respectful of both school staff and classmates. Shamim explains that the language barrier is a big problem to her and has affected her social interactions. She cannot make new friends. She views her self as an outsider with a different dressing style and a different culture that has restricted her interactions.

Moreover, her academic grades have suffered because she is not able to participate adequately in the class and field activities. I addition I advocated for the creation of a student group for all the students with foreign cultural backgrounds to address their religious and spiritual beliefs and how to navigate being a part of the school community. However, I faced some obstacles in implementing these interventions. Shamim was very reluctant to join the students’ groups. This is because at first, at first it felt that she was getting more frustrated by staying in these groups given her cultural position and her poor English. She would want to contribute but her broken language took her confidence away. Shamim is sad and so am I.

She has not taken the termination as a positive thing and she is worried of how she would cope up without seeing me or talking to me. This has made me think that maybe her depression would return because as she has explained, this termination is to her a loss. Literature Review In planning for any treatment, termination makes the final stage. This is because it is a prove that the treatment has been successful or that the patient needs better care. In relating these concepts to Shamim’s case, I must say I had a very productive relationship. However, at the time of termination I felt an ambivalent attachment creeping in. On one end I was not confident that she would be able to progress well without my support while on the other I thought the sessions were productive and she had shown great signs of improvement indicating that she was ready to continue on her on.

From this experience, I believe it is important to appreciate that the emotions of a termination experience are not only limited to the patient, but greatly affect the therapist as well. Therapists often respond to terminations with mixed feelings, mostly of gratitude, pride and a sense of accomplishment (Siebold, 1991). However, qualitative data on the performance of the single contacts has indicated that the social work therapists involves practice within the stipulated ethical principles, in the shortest time and make use of all available skill and knowledge which allows them to have the greatest impact in these single sessions (Talmon, 1990). Therefore, there is need to reevaluate the single sessions because they have a potential for helping patients and social work therapists need to significantly analyze the best conditions that would call for single sessions.

Personal Thoughts From my previous therapy sessions, I have had the chance to work with patients for significant periods of time without having to terminate the sessions prematurely. At the end of these sessions, I experienced mixed emotions mostly of positivity and accomplishment accompanied by fear and uncertainty about the patient’s future. However, from my experience with Shamim, I wished I had more time with her. This will go along way to build an honest and trustworthy relationship between the patient and the practitioner (Gelman, Fernandez, Hausman, Miller & Weiner, 2007). From this session, my eyes have been opened to the fact that many single session or short term therapies are not recorded and recognized yet some of them could be having a great impact on the lives of the patient.

Despite being pro long-term therapy sessions, I would give a node to single sessions upon prover evaluation, preparation and planning. Conclusion My experience with Shamim has exposed the challenges that high school therapists have to deal with due to termination of a therapy session. High school therapists have to make the highest impact on the life of vulnerable students in the shortest time possible because of conditions such as change of school that force terminations. Therapeutic termination with the early adolescent who has experienced multiple losses. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 16(3), 177-189. Brandell, Jr. Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Attachment Psychoanalytic Social Work, 17, 2, 132-157 Gelman, C. R. N. Z. J. Fam. Ther. Pinkerton, R. S. , & Rockwell, W. K. Termination in brief psychotherapy: The case for an eclectic approach.