The Wait

Is it normal to feel adrift between therapy sessions?

Short answer

Yes. Feeling adrift or low between therapy sessions is common. Research on people waiting for care found that distress like anxiety and low mood tends to stay high across a long wait rather than fade on its own. The gap is an active stretch, and it is easier with support and a small plan.

The research
Tidmarsh, L. V., Harrison, R., Wilkinson, H., Harrington, M., Ravindran, D., Norwood, S., & Finlay, K. A. (2026). The persistence of psychological distress while waiting for pain management. British Journal of Pain.
Sample 211 adults, 161 women and 50 men, on a waiting list for pain management at a regional NHS hospital in the south east of England. Standard wellbeing measures were taken at the start of the wait, then again at three months and six months.
Published 2026
Journal British Journal of Pain
Lydia Tidmarsh and her colleagues at the University of Reading and the Royal Berkshire Hospital followed 211 adults who were on a waiting list for pain management at a regional NHS hospital in the south east of England. There were 161 women and 50 men. It was a longitudinal survey, which means the same people were checked more than once over time. The team measured four things at the start of the wait, then again at three months and six months: depression, anxiety, pain catastrophizing, which means expecting the worst about pain, and pain self-efficacy, which means confidence in coping. The waits were long. People waited about 166 days on average just to be sorted into care, and about 354 days for a first treatment appointment. Across that whole stretch, distress stayed high. Average scores sat in the clinically meaningful range for depression, anxiety, and catastrophizing, and confidence in coping stayed low, for the length of the wait. One measure, confidence in coping, rose a little over time, but the change was small and the level stayed in the range where support is needed. The authors concluded that the distress was persistent and entrenched, not something the wait resolved on its own.
Read the paper

What does this mean for you?

First, a plain caution about the study. It looked at people waiting for a pain clinic, not people between talk-therapy sessions. Pain and therapy are not the same, and a months-long waiting list is a longer, emptier wait than the days between two sessions. So read this as a close cousin of your situation, not a mirror of it.

Even so, the pattern it found travels well. When care is paused and a person is left waiting, hard feelings do not simply drain away with time. In this study they held steady for months. That matches what a lot of people feel in the gap between sessions: a sense of being unmoored, flat, or adrift, as if the work stopped the moment they walked out the door.

That feeling is common, and it is not a sign that therapy failed or that you are going backward. It is what an untended gap tends to do. The study also found something useful in the other direction. Confidence in coping, the sense that you can handle a hard day, nudged upward over time and shaped how people fared. That is the part you can build.

There are limits worth naming. This was one survey at one hospital, and it measured standard distress scores, not the exact feeling of drifting. It cannot tell you how your own week will go. What it does offer is a steady, honest read: waiting is hard for most people, the hardness can linger, and a little structure and support during the wait is worth more than waiting it out alone.

The takeaway

Terms in this page
Between-session support Grounding

This is the work Asendar™ was built for: holding you steady in the stretch between sessions, so the gap becomes an active part of your healing instead of an empty wait. If you want a simple read on where your head is today, take your Mental Readiness Score.

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People also ask

Is feeling adrift between sessions a sign therapy is not working?

Usually not. In this waiting-list study, distress stayed high simply because care was paused, not because anything had failed. A flat or unmoored stretch between sessions is a common feature of the gap, not a verdict on the work you are doing.

How long does the distress of waiting last?

In this study it did not fade on its own. People waited around 166 days to be triaged and about 354 days for a first appointment, and their depression, anxiety, and catastrophizing stayed in the clinically meaningful range across the whole wait. Long, unsupported waits tend to keep distress going rather than ease it.

What helps when I feel adrift between sessions?

The same study points to one lever: confidence in coping, which rose over time and shaped how people fared. Building that day to day, through a small routine, a check-in, or a plan for hard days, gives the empty stretch some structure. It is education, not treatment, so bring anything serious to your care team.

Explore more in the The Wait pillar