It can be very difficult to wrap up a session without practice. In this section, Rory and Ken discuss some of the ways you may go about making this easier:

• Knowing how to end a session is part of deliberate practice – being thoughtful of how you work.
• Have a clock in the room – consider placing it behind the client so you can look at it without taking your attention away from the client.
• Contract session hours – factor in maybe a 5-minute greeting at the beginning and maybe 5 minutes to summarise at the end.
• Stick to your boundaries – getting in the habit of going 5/10 minutes over your scheduled session time may cause future inconvenience if you find yourself busy. You need to factor in some time between clients to collect your thoughts and prepare for the next client.
• You don’t want to be checking your watch in a very obvious way, this may make the client feel as though you’re not paying full attention or they are boring you etc. To combat this you may attempt to catch a glimpse of your client’s watch or wear your own on the inside of your wrist to allow you to check it more discreetly.
• You may also consider having a clock that you can see, and a clock that the client can see, this gives the client an opportunity to self-regulate and gives the client some control.
• It is important that you factor in time for the client to wind down, bringing them back to a place they can re-engage with their lives outside of the session.
• If the client mentions something they want to address right at the end of the session, make sure you acknowledge it, but suggest that the client brings it to the next session where you can then begin to explore it.

A handout on Closing a Counselling Session is available for download in the green button above.