My counselors have told me that if I leave a session upset or unhappy or in turmoil, that means it was a good session. Presumably, if I leave happy, it’s not so good.
My goal was to be happy. I entered therapy in a suicidal mood and a couple of years later, I exited feeling not unhappy and not likely to harm myself. During that time, I couldn’t tell if I was making progress. Nothing ever changed dramatically for me. It was slow, slow, slow. The end was a gradual realization that I just didn’t really want to come any more.
I might go back occasionally for a “tune-up.” Not sure what that is, but I’m thinking there are things that have happened since I left that were questions when I left, and they have changed and become different questions, and that I might benefit from talking them over with someone who has my therapist’s perspective.
I guess for me, it seemed like I was stuck until the very end. But my stuckness and your stuckness are probably very different. I never made much progress during therapy, although, looking back, I can see I covered a lot of ground.
Stuck sounds to me like a reason to stay in therapy. Our goal is to be free. We can’t be free if we are stuck. However, I’m not sure if your therapist is the right therapist. But if you are stuck, you should definitely be working on it. I don’t know with whom, though.