pier end by seascape symbolising endings with the words online seminar
CPD Credits
3
Event Type
Live Online Event
Location
Zoom & Recording
Time (UK)
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Standard
£80.00
Trainee/NHS
£68
Book Tickets
pier end by seascape symbolising endings with the words online seminar
Friday, December 4, 2026

Endings

Partial, Abrupt and Avoided Endings

With Dr Joyce Slochower

Termination is one of the most consequential yet least straightforward phases of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy. While classical psychoanalytic theory has traditionally given termination a clearly defined place within the treatment, clinical endings are often far more complex. Treatments may end abruptly, remain unfinished, continue indefinitely, or shift into new forms of relationship. For therapists, these moments bring questions about dependency, separation, loss, attachment, professional boundaries and the meaning of the therapeutic relationship into particularly sharp focus.

In this workshop, Dr Joyce Slochower will explore the complexities of endings in contemporary psychoanalytic practice. Drawing on her relational and object relational perspectives and extensive clinical experience, she will consider what happens when therapist and patient are ready to end, and what happens when they are not. The workshop will examine the influence of earlier experiences of separation, the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship, and the impact of practical realities such as time limits, institutional settings om the termination experience.

The programme will also explore partial endings, where contact continues beyond the formal therapeutic relationship. Partial endings raise important clinical and ethical questions about boundaries, dependency and whether a relationship can meaningfully change form without avoiding the work of separation. The final session will consider therapy interminable: the clinical dilemmas we face when treatments continue over many years, might there be potential value in a sustained therapeutic relationship? What about the risks of prolonged dependency? Throughout, participants will be invited to think critically about their own assumptions about endings and what makes a therapeutic ending psychologically meaningful.

Dr Slochower is Professor Emerita of Psychology at CUNY and faculty at leading psychoanalytic institutes in the US. She is the author of Holding and Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Collisions and Psychoanalysis and the Unspoken.

Programme

14.00 Introductions and Housekeeping

14.05 The Complexity of Endings

Termination has traditionally been regarded as an essential part of psychoanalytic work, yet contemporary practice often produces more complex and less clearly defined endings. This session explores how therapists and patients arrive at decisions to end, and what happens when treatment ends abruptly, remains unfinished or continues indefinitely. We will consider the influence of earlier experiences of separation and loss, the dynamics of the therapeutic relationship, and the impact of practical realities including time limits, institutional pressures and changing circumstances. We will also ask what it means clinically when neither therapist nor patient is ready, or able, to say goodbye.

14.45 Q&A

15.00 Partial Endings

Not every therapeutic ending brings an end to contact. Within training institutions and professional communities, therapist and patient may continue to encounter one another. This session explores the clinical and ethical complexities of these partial endings. What happens to the therapeutic relationship when its boundaries change? Can continued contact ever have psychological value, or does it risk avoiding the work of separation? We will consider dependency, attachment, shared interests and emotional compatibility, alongside the therapist’s and patient’s wishes for the relationship to continue in another form.

15.45 Q&A

16.00 Break

16.15 Interminable Therapy

Some patients find it difficult to contemplate ending treatment, while others may have genuine and continuing psychological needs that make long-term therapy appropriate. This session explores the clinical dilemmas of prolonged or apparently interminable treatment. What are the risks of continuing for many years, particularly where dependency or vulnerability is significant? Conversely, what might be lost if treatment ends because of an ideal of independence or completion? We will consider how therapists distinguish between treatment that remains productive and treatment organised around avoiding separation, including the therapist’s own investment in continuation and the wish to remain needed.

16.45 Q&A

17.00 End (this could be interesting!)

Dr Joyce Slochower

Joyce Slochower Ph.D. is Professor Emerita of Psychology at CUNY; Faculty, NYU Postdoctoral Program, Steven Mitchell Center, National Training Program, & PINC in San Francisco.  Second Editions of her books, Holding and Psychoanalysis: A Relational Perspective and Psychoanalytic Collisions were released in 2014.  Her latest book, Psychoanalysis and the Unspoken, was released by Routledge in June. She is co-Editor, with Lew Aron and Sue Grand, of “De-idealizing Relational Theory: a Critique from Within” and “Decentering Relational Theory: A Comparative Critique” (2018, Routledge) both of which received the Gradiva award in 2019. She is in private practice in New York City where she sees individuals and couples and runs supervision and study groups.  

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