A large proportion of patients abandon psychotherapy before it is completed. Young people are the most likely to abandon treatment but also the most likely to relapse, single people are less systematic than married people and people with a low educational level tend to leave psychotherapy sessions prematurely. Curiously, those who present more severe pathologies or more intense symptoms are also those who have a lower therapeutic adherence.
What are the main reasons that lead people to abandon psychological therapy?
1. The reason for the consultation is no longer a concern. These are people who went to the psychologist seeking help for a specific problem but are no longer concerned about it, which does not always mean that they have resolved it but simply that it is no longer a priority or that they have put it into perspective.
2. Lack of motivation for treatment. Different approaches can be applied in psychotherapy, but some therapists make the mistake of always applying the same perspective, without taking into account the characteristics of the person in front of them. However, in some cases the techniques used are not motivating for the patient and he or she decides to abandon the treatment.
3. Unfulfilled expectations. In many cases, dropout is caused by overly high expectations that have not been met during psychotherapy sessions. When people decide to go to a psychologist, they usually have an idea of what they want to achieve and in what time frame. That is why one of the most important tasks of the psychotherapist during the first sessions is to level expectations. However, when psychotherapy fails to meet these expectations, the person becomes hopeless and drops out.
4. Delay in achieving goals. It has been shown that better therapeutic adherence is achieved when, from the beginning, the person can form a precise idea of how many sessions they will need. Open-ended psychotherapy leads to almost twice as many dropouts as time-limited psychotherapy. Having well-defined goals helps the person remain faithful to the therapy and follow the recommendations.
5. Lack of rapport with the therapist. In psychotherapy, the quality of the relationship established is fundamental. If the person perceives that there is no connection with the psychologist, that the psychologist does not understand them or that the psychologist minimizes their problems, the treatment will be destined to fail.
6. Failure to comply with instructions. Psychotherapy, as it does not use medication, is based on tasks that people must perform outside the consultation. However, many people close the page and do not open it again until the next session, either out of laziness or because they consider the exercises to be unnecessary. This means that the treatment will be delayed and, as a result, frustration will appear that will lead to abandonment.
7. Inappropriate attitudes of the therapist. People who interrupt their treatment often blame the therapist for their abandonment. This does not always mean that this is the case, but in some cases, certain attitudes can ruin psychotherapy. Most people report problems such as a lack of professional competence, the therapist’s personality (too permissive or too authoritarian) or a contradictory system of values.
8. Refusal to discuss certain issues. When a person goes to a psychologist, they usually do so with a reason for consultation, with a problem that they want to solve. However, it is common for this problem to be nothing more than a symptom of a deeper conflict, so it may be necessary to address other issues. When the patient refuses to delve deeper into certain areas, psychotherapy does not progress and generates frustration, both in the psychologist and in the client.
9. Self-destructive tendency or refusal to change. Surprisingly, many people abandon therapy when they begin to improve, sometimes because they believe they no longer need it and then fall back into old habits. At the base of this belief there is almost always a self-destructive tendency that dates back to patterns acquired in childhood or a refusal to change. We cannot forget that any type of disorder that has been dragged on for a long time becomes part of us and sometimes change can be frightening, a process that normally occurs at an unconscious level.
10. Advice from another professional of a different theoretical school. Most people are not satisfied with the opinion of one professional but seek different opinions. It is certainly important to listen to several bells and whistles, but we cannot forget that sometimes we choose the sound we want to hear and not the one that would be good for us. This is the typical case of people who go from one psychologist to another in search of confirmation of their beliefs.
