From the author: The article discusses three strategies for a specialist’s response to a client’s refusal to continue therapy. How does the therapist feel if, after an agreement on a long series of meetings, the client suddenly expresses his intention to interrupt therapy? The specialist can to feel the sting of professional failure, the experience of a mistake. He can mentally conduct a detailed audit of previous meetings over and over again in order to find for himself the answer to what went wrong. Finds, comprehends, and places the lesson in the treasury of his professional experience. Studies. Worries. Or, on the contrary, the therapist may be optimistic about the client’s initiative to stop. Because the client doesn’t just disappear, he leaves with words of gratitude, and the reason for his refusal is the feeling of satiety, that he has received enough for himself so far and it is clear to him where to move and what to pay attention to, how to apply and develop the experience gained during therapy. The therapist may receive this feedback with confidence and even pleasure. And with a feeling of personal success and professionalism, he calmly ends this psychotherapeutic relationship. Both of these forms of response to refusal are familiar and deeply understandable to me. Both forms can be adequate and fully correspond to reality. But there is also a third aspect, which seems to me now perhaps the most important. The relationship with the therapist is very significant and close for the client. And the way he manifests himself in them reflects the pattern of his participation in other relationships that are significant to him far beyond the boundaries of the specialist’s office. And it is quite possible that the client’s proposal to stop therapy or reduce the frequency of meetings is about how he is withdrawing himself from significant relationships and how he is denying himself space in a relationship with another person. The manifestation of this pattern here-and-now is useful and effective for therapy. The entire past context of this therapeutic relationship may remind the specialist that for this person the experience of building a relationship is very painful and traumatic, because he feels he has to be something different to be accepted. Must be something special in order to be fully present in close relationships. And if this fails (which is natural), he moves himself, withdraws, denies himself the right to be in these relationships. Perhaps for a given person, the experience of openness and sincerity is akin to a big risk with high stakes. Opening up, he gets hurt every time, fearing that the other will be horrified or judged. He may fear disappointing the therapist (as well as other significant interaction partners) and experiences distress associated with this fear. Voltage. He devalues ​​himself along with continuous negative evaluation. This is torture. His fear of losing sympathy and affection towards him is actualized. There is a desire to escape from the relationship before it is too late. Until they abandoned it. Be the first so that it doesn't get worse. And he comes to the next meeting and proposes to end the therapy. This critical episode in the therapist-client relationship can become the beginning of a new round of therapeutic relationships. The therapist, like a mirror, reflects and returns to the client his characteristics of investing in relationships and/or avoiding them. And here lies great potential for key changes. This is the healing nature of the psychotherapeutic relationship. This is psychotherapy.