Ending Therapy with a Client of Eighteen Years

A surreal bittersweet departure

Photo by Elia Pellegrini on Unsplash

Last week I said goodbye to M. Eighteen years ago we met for a consultation at my office on Union Square in New York City. His mother’s psychiatrist sent him my way when his life was on the cusp of suicide and incarceration. I still remember how his eyes were cold and flat. He was robotic and dazed, self-loathing and deeply ashamed.