How Do I Know I've Completed Most or Enough Of My Therapy or Recovery?

Healing and recovery requires adequate time. Anywhere you go, there is no such thing as “magic,” quick fix, or instant therapy. Work is needed to prevent complete recovery from taking so much longer time than it should be.

Yet many people quit or terminate therapy prematurely due to fixation on instant gratification or “magic” as if there is one. This explains people’s ongoing misery, greater costs, or remaining stuck in major losses, hurts, damages, and traumas the rest of their lives.

How do I know I have completed most or enough of my therapy or healing?

There is no guaranteed criteria or determination for this. However, knowing what we do in therapy and counseling, you may look for some factors or conditions to see whether you are ready to terminate the intensity of your therapy or recovery process, such as the following:

• Able to make healthy choices
• Able to set healthy boundaries and limits when necessary
• Able to love and forgive one’s self and others
• Able to shift from victim stance to survivor/victor stance
• Able to grow progressively in crucial areas of personal growth
• Able to see and act on more choices and possibilities
• Able to minimize unnecessary pain and suffering
• Able to get needs met regularly
• Able to joke, laugh, or have fun
• Able to love and be loved
• Able to better control one’s troubling memories, thoughts, feelings, and behavior
• Able to experientially tap a Higher Power or spirituality to realize complete recovery
• Able to experience increasing self esteem or decreasing grandiosity
• Able to fulfill therapy or recovery goals about 90%