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Sometimes my therapist would end early because I had nothing new to say or the objectives previously mentioned are in progress. 50 minutes seems perfect. Almost self care for people who ignore themselves. The 50 minute could be relaxing for them.

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This was really interesting to read. For me the only reason there was a time limit for therapy was to ensure you are not depleting yourself of your emotional resources and can manage your time with other clients, as you mentioned. But when it comes to therapy by minute, I think it leans closer towards counselling than it does towards therapy. There are brief counseling approaches like solution-focused counselling, narrative counseling and crisis counseling which are also proven to be effective although they have their own limitations. So according to me the timing and the therapeutic approach that the client needs can be decided best by the client and therapist in a collaborative alliance.

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I think it was a very interesting read and as a student I wonder why a time bound session is common everywhere like in most of the cases therapy is somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour and what I feel the time limit has both is pros and cons for the therapist and the client as well. But what I think is that this time frame is applicable for a greater number of people than few others and sometimes those others might not be able to express themselves fully and needed more time.

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Also, it feels like 50 minutes provides enough time to comfortably talk about something but also cuts short the time enough for one to look forward to the next session and ruminate on whatever discussed in the current session.

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I work as a psychic/tarot card reader and as a Reverend and spiritual counselor. I have had 5 minute sessions and 90 minute sessions. I find the short sessions to be very superficial. This also has something to do with the way people perceive psychics, but I have always treated tarot as a counseling tool. 30 minute sessions tend to be a tad short, and I always seem to over with my clients anyways. Anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour seems to be a goldilocks zone where there is enough time to expose an issue, talk about the issue, and come up with potential solutions. Any longer than an hour produces tangential issues that take away from the main issue being addressed, plus, I am always exhausted after a session that lasts more than 70 minutes.

I know it's not quite the same as therapy, but it is a form of counseling that I do and I find the session times to be just as pertinent as they are in clinical therapy. Thank you for this interesting post.

Of course it comes back to Freud!

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