This is a question new clients ask frequently. Behind it is often a fear that they will become dependent on therapy and get stuck there for life. Some clients do choose to stay in therapy for a long time, but the emphasis here is on choice. No good therapist would want to entrap you, I promise.
The answer I give people is that it varies - a lot.
Occasionally I’ll have someone who only stays for a couple of sessions. Whether they say so or not, usually that means they’ve sussed out I’m not the right therapist for them. That’s perfectly OK - I can’t be the right therapist for everyone, and all clients deserve someone they feel totally comfortable with.
Then there are those clients who stay for a few months. They come every week and we really get stuck into the work. Either they make a lot of progress and feel ready to finish, or they get to a point where they have the tools to go the next stage alone. They know my door is always open and they can return if they would like to - even if that’s months later.
There are also clients who stay for a year or two. These might be folk who come for one issue, but end up delving into a whole lot more.This is either because therapy really works for them and they start wanting to explore all kinds of areas, or they discover that things are more interconnected that they thought. Other people come in knowing there’s a lot to untangle and are happy to have the time and space to look at everything carefully.
It’s also quite normal to enter therapy - deliberately or not - with a relatively safe issue in mind that you test your new therapist with. The kind of thing that, if you end up not really gelling with them, won’t worry you that you revealed. If they pass the test, build a good relationship with you and respond as you’d hoped to your presenting issue - THEN you start to feel comfortable enough to reveal other things. This is a perfectly reasonable way of keeping yourself safe as you figure out your new bond with your therapist.
I do have clients with whom I have a much longer therapeutic relationship, of several years. Those clients may have chosen to continue coming to therapy because of ongoing issues that they find talking really helps with. Or they may not come weekly any longer - perhaps arranging a monthly check in or something similar. Either way, we still have masses to explore and my in depth knowledge of them over a significant period of time can be a huge bonus when it comes to meaningful support.
So the answer really is that people stay anywhere from a few weeks to a few years, and everything inbetween. Therapists never hold a fixed position on how long you “should” stay or how fast progress “should” be (unless you’re with an NHS therapist or similar, where sessions have to be time limited because of waiting lists) so there’s no need to worry that your therapy isn’t “normal”. Whatever feels comfortable for you is almost certainly right.