The Moment You Stop Questioning Yourself After Every Session

There is a particular ritual that many therapists practice at the end of a session, though ritual is perhaps too generous a word for something that feels more like an ambush. The client leaves. The door closes. And before you have even turned back to your desk, the review begins. Did I say the right thing at the right moment? Was I too directive or not directive enough? Did I miss something important in the last twenty minutes? Should I have pushed harder on that or held back? Was that intervention actually helpful or did it land wrong and I just could not tell? The questions arrive quickly and without invitation, and they carry a weight that is disproportionate to anything that actually happened in the room.