Respond to this colleague by explaining whether you agree or disagree that the techniques identified by your colleague will result in successful termination. Identify potential consequences of early termination for families and groups.

Discussion:

Termination is inevitable in any therapy (Patterson et al., 2018). While this part of therapy will always happen, it is important to assess, evaluate, and identify if clients are capable of maintaining their progress outside of therapy. One way to evaluate if clients are ready to terminate is based on their dependency on their therapist. Clients who do not have much social support tend to depend on the support from their therapist. In a situation like that, the therapist should work to help the client with developing social support outside of therapy sessions (Patterson et al., 2018).

The evaluation between group therapy and family therapy would be relatively similar. As the leader or facilitator, each member must be assessed on their progression and evaluate the skills they have gained and sustained throughout the sessions. Both require the therapist to assess the goals and objectives and the progression of each member before determining if therapy sessions should be terminated.

Felton and Polowy (2019) suggest that termination discussions happen as soon as possible so both parties can discuss termination of therapy services. Once termination has been agreed upon by both the therapist and the participants, it is important to provide tools and resources that are readily available outside of therapy settings as well as monitoring individual progression.