Taking a therapy break?

Here again with another question for all you wise minds. I emailed my therapist about taking a break. Recently, I noticed that our sessions have felt unproductive. We weren't clicking, and it was frustrating. Every session, I'd talk about what I felt had gone awry with the prior session. I'm not sure what's happening. Are my expectations off? Have we reached the end of his toolkit? Are we both just a little tired? So I thought a break would be good to reset.

Anyway, my therapist is away in Timbuktu with very limited internet. Okay, I don't actually know this, but I'm imagining someplace very remote because he does have very limited internet. He immediately emailed back to say that he respected my wish to take a break, but would like to discuss it.

Sooo...the question. Have any of you had the session to discuss ending therapy (either permanently or temporarily)? Was it helpful? Was it productive? Were you glad you went?

I'm leaning towards going because I really like and respect my therapist. He's done a lot for me. At the same time, I can't imagine what could be said at session to illuminate this, and it feels potentially tiring and anxiety-provoking. Ok. Please discuss. Thanks!

We didn't have a specific session with this as a focus, but we definitely reached a place where we did have clear discussion about how to proceed. In my case, I just reached a place where I wasn't feeling the need for that kind of constant support and sessions. Sessions were feeling "light" and a bit repetitive because I knew exactly what was going on, knew how to handle things, and generally was doing so without running things by my therapist. Essentially, I was feeling the need of therapy coming to an end, and so was my therapist.

What was helpful in our discussion was the communication about how to proceed. We discussed spacing session out a bit. In fact, we did that a few times but I still felt sessions kind of unnecessary. We also discussed that I was welcome to return at a future date if my needs changed, etc. In essence, having that conversation left me feeling supported and confident in my decision to leave therapy, and comfortable that if I needed to return later I didn't have to feel it was a failure or unwelcomed in any way.

Yes, my therapist and I have had sessions dedicated to this. It's always been helpful and, I think, very healthy to reflect on therapy goals & whether we are progressing.

I just took a week-long break, which hardly seems to count, but it was helpful anyways.

I've only once taken a break from therapy. I don't remember how it came up, but my T felt like I should try without sessions because I had so much support at the time. Sadly, this is when I lost most my support, soon afterwards. I hit rock bottom.

I've had conversations with T about tapering down sessions. She thought I didn't need weekly sessions. We went to every other week, and we tried once every three weeks. I don't think I made it to once a month. It was really hard for me.

Maybe try tapering down sessions to start before you take a break? To see if you do need his support, just not at often. Maybe that will allow enough in life to talk about and feel like you're having a productive session. When T tapered me down, it did help to have more things to work on.