I would say that one of the long term benefits of my long term therapy is I don't really feel afraid of anything anymore, including leaving therapy or leaving my therapist. And I think for a long time I was stuck in my life decisions in ways that were anxiety or fear based, which I think is a typical historical influence of severe childhood trauma. But my decision to remain in therapy for nearly a decade, with no plans to end soon, is very deliberately made based on a growth perspective rather than a need to get over any kind of fear, therapy related or not. Maybe it's just my therapist and maybe it is his own strengths model of clients, but it would just be very atypical for him to trigger any kind of fear that I cannot handle either what I've had to handle in life during the time I've seen him or that I cannot handle the difficult issues I've brought to therapy. When I've taken a break or quit altogether, he is confident in my decision to do so and yet welcomes me back when I return.

I can't explain how or when or why therapy has helped me deal rationally with my many fears, both relational and existential, and it's not like I have dealt with them always in a direct manner, but I know the primary benefit has been that I can recognize, articulate, examine, and respond to the fears that used to run my life. As a consequence, I handle my high stress and high stakes work easier and better than I ever have, parent my child in a more supportive way (and he's less fearful too), and generally feel more calm and content on a regular basis. These are huge benefits for me, and as I've opened up to the fears I bring to therapy, my long term therapist has been able to help me negotiate these more quickly and consistently and effectively. He can point out when he's "heard a version of this story before", remind me of how I've dealt with this before, or otherwise give me information tailored to me so I can hear it.

Maybe this doesn't make sense to anyone if you haven't experienced the perhaps unique benefits of long term therapy, or maybe if therapy has been without, as mine has, some sort of constant or frequent rupture, or where transference or difficulties with the therapy relationship are primary. I don't think there is anything my therapist or I myself have done to prevent ruptures-- when they've occurred, like transference, they have been short lived and resolve easily. Now, compared to earlier, I can respond in the moment when something he says strikes me the wrong way (or maybe the next session). Just like a long term friendship or other intimate relationship, I think he knows me better and I know him better and it's easier to dive into the real issues and not get hung up on the stuff that is not about what brought me to therapy. Like most people with my history, I have attachment issues and I think those have been resolved along the way and aided by being in therapy for so long, at least as is indicated by a general improvement in my interpersonal life, deeper friendships and more satisfying ones. I continue to see improvements in many aspects of my life that I think are attributable to therapy.

I don't agree that successful therapy means you no longer need or want therapy. That can certainly be the case for some and maybe even most therapy. Just because you're in long term therapy and don't have that goal, doesn't mean-- as you seem to presume-- that there is a problem with the person or the therapy. It is easy for me to understand how someone continued in therapy long term and how they can benefit from it. For some issues there is no end point in "cured" or "healed." And even if someone benefits simply from having extra support beyond their social network, that seems just fine to me. It's between them and their T and their pocketbook, and to assume there is a dependency there. I renew my book membership every month but that hardly means I am addicted to reading and reading new books. For me, sessions are not a rehash but involve new content and explorations and are the closest thing I can imagine to something that is good for me (reading, learning) that I continue to do and get better at it. I'm a better reader now than I was decades ago, partly because of my "experience" reading as well as the content/knowledge I've accumulated. Same is true for my therapy experience.