The paper proposes that the way therapists think about endings in psychotherapy is inseparable from the ends that they and their patients arrive at. At first, the question of how ends and endings relate would seem quite straightforward: determine the ‘criteria for termination’, and we will know how to effect the ending. In fact, it turns out to be quite the opposite: grapple with the ending as a central organizing phantasy underpinning the therapeutic relationship, and gradually the ends emerge. Particular attention is given to ‘ending’ as an archetype activated by the very nature of the therapeutic relationship.