Do you have to give notice to quit therapy?

[Thecoffeecuprunsdry]

This is in mental health as well but decided to put it here because I'm really struggling emotionally right now and I would really appreciate hearing other people's experiences regarding this because I just don't know what's reasonable or not.

I don't have a contract to state terms of service etc and I'm in private individual therapy rather than NHS or clinic.

If you are in therapy does your therapist require you give notice to quit and if so by how long?

What would happen with regards to a notice period if there was a dispute and you want to terminate services immediately?

@me4real I actually specifically looked for a woman therapist because of prior abuse, I just felt I would be better understood and feel safer

@LunaAndHerMoonDragons I found the therapist via the BACP registry, I looked for therapists that had experience of the issues I have, that charged prices roughly in my budget and emailed the ones that seemed to fit the bill. I ended up with this therapist partly because of availability, partly because she seemed the right one out of the ones I talked to.

Sadly I wasn't ever told about terms of service, and I did discuss my circumstances in detail before we agreed to start because I was really worried about my finances and the possibility I might have to end my sessions relatively suddenly because of them. I wanted to be upfront about my circumstances.

I've been juggling money since to keep paying for it because it was really important to me to have professional help and the NHS could only offer me 3 CBT sessions.

I will ask in future for a written TOS and suggested to therapist it might be useful to future clients to prevent this from happening again.

Well done for being assertive, OP. Chalk it up to you having developed some solid boundary-setting skills! I hope this experience hasn't put you off working with another therapist.

As it wasn't mentioned at the start, if it isn't written anywhere I think they made the thing up on the spot @Thecoffeecuprunsdry as they were nasty or annoyed at you wanting to stop the sessions. Or if it is written somewhere they should definitely have told you at the start. It does sound a bit like they misled you.

They're not all awful; please try again with a new therapist when you feel able. You will find an ok fit, probably next time.

I'm long term unable to work due to a MH disablity but I paid for private therapy for quite a while. I didn't have much money to spend on other things, but it was well worth it. I had good and bad ones too and even the great ones you might disagree with occasionally.

EMDR therapy was the best and the one I would most recommend.

Best wishes. xx

I’m so sorry
You did the right thing , got help and you got a bummer
Therapist are hit and miss
I’d say given the double whammy of enforcing unfair terms and crossing boundaries means it’s worth you following up with governing body
As it will empower you

To be honest the best thing I did was the Freedom programme x sometimes a group and learning scenario hits the mark

Onwards