Toughest counseling session to date!

I don't often discuss the actual counseling side of my experiences in graduate school, mostly due to the privacy and ethical considerations. However, I am having a really tough time letting my most recent session go.

For those of you who don't know, I am completing a counseling psychology practicum in which I provide psychotherapy to children and their families. I work with children as young as 3 and as old as 18. One young client (6 years old) began to see me towards the start of the practicum placement (around late September, early August) and continued to see me every other week until this week, our last session together. You see, as a student, I have a finite amount of time I am allowed to stay at a site before moving on to the next level of training.

This is actually okay with me--I like knowing I will get a wide range of experiences and training. I actually even felt okay with terminating services with everyone and completing our good bye sessions over last week and this week. But this client, man did he change my mind about that. He entered the room with his mom and immediately asked if he would ever see me again. When gently told no, he began to cry and continued to cry through most of the session.

While talking with his mom about his progress and what she perceived as most helpful, the client wrote me this note:

"I love Mrs. P. so so so so so so much!  I love Mrs. P. so much. Bye!"

He asked me for my phone number, asked for a hug several times, and did not want to talk about what we had done so far in therapy "because your making me cry."

It was THE hardest session I have ever had.  Not in the typical ways, but in the I want to pick you up and make everything okay for the next several years way.  You know, the way I can't respond.  I did not want to lie to him and was/am aware of how lying could make the transition harder, as he would be holding out hope that I would show up.  Additionally, as much as I would absolutely love to check in with him and his family in the future, that is not very therapeutically helpful to hold on to them so tightly.  So, I have to just remind him to use his coping skills, let him know it's okay to be sad and I'm sad too, and model giving a proper good bye.

It sucked!

When have you done something that you know to this day was the right thing to do, yet, you found yourself grappling with the negative aftermath?  How did you manage it?