Important to note: Session duration is an important part of the therapy frame and is determined to best support and enhance the therapeutic process based on theory and clinical judgment. Short and long sessions are recognised by Medicare. If you have any questions, you are welcome to discuss them during your sessions.
Theory – Jacques Lacan, a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, introduced the concept of variable-length sessions, or séances scandées, as an approach to psychoanalytic therapy, and discussed the theoretical concept published in Écrits in 1966, titled: “Logical Time and the Assertion of Anticipated Certainty: A New Sophism.” There has been much research and discussion on this approach since then, including in seminars. Unlike a rigid schedule, this method allows the rhythm and duration of sessions to respond to the patient’s speech, emphasising the temporal unfolding of material emerging from the patient’s discourse, rather than to a clock.
According to Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, a fixed session duration can encourage repetition and tighten imaginary expectations that patients may bring to therapy, while varying the length depending on the movement in session content can facilitate working through difficulties sometimes longer, and sometimes shorter sessions to enhance the rhythm of the work. This work is nuanced and requires the analyst to have had their own psychoanalytic training, personal analysis, and supervision in psychoanalysis.
Variable-length sessions are often shorter than an hour. You always come to your sessions on the allocated time, some sessions may end a few minutes earlier than other sessions depending on emerging topics. This therapeutic practice was not merely logistical but a deliberate methodological shift aimed at deepening the therapy work (Lacan, 1953–1954).
Origins and Theoretical Foundations
Lacan developed variable-length sessions as part of his reinterpretation of Freudian theory through structuralist and linguistic perspectives. He argued that the unconscious is structured like a language, and that the patient’s speech reveals the operation of desire and repression (Lacan, 1957/2006). In this framework, the timing of interventions, and even the end of the session itself, becomes meaningful: a session may be shortened or extended to respond to the moment when speech material is surfacing.
In sessions, patients start by speaking about what comes to mind – this could be a word, a topic we are working on, a question, a thought, a feeling, or a specific relationship. The patient always chooses the topic. For example, patients often say socially that they are stressed, but in analytic work, stress is ambiguous and requires exploration. Sometimes I may ask: why are you stressed? And we work from there.
Freud long recognised the importance of timing in therapy, noting that the success of interpretation depends on the patient’s readiness to receive / hear it (Freud, 1913/1958). Lacan’s innovation was to formalise this responsiveness, transforming the analytic therapy hour from a fixed container into a flexible, patient-centred space. The variable-length session is thus not arbitrary; it is a clinical tool to honour the emergent logic of the patient’s language and discourse.
Your Speech, Therapist Listening
The defining feature of variable-length sessions is the prioritisation of the patient’s saying. In Lacanian terms, the analyst does not “control” the session but listens attentively to the patient’s associations, repetitions, and silences, allowing the unconscious to guide the temporal structure (Lacan, 1977b). By varying session length, the analyst creates conditions in which the patient can fully express emergent thoughts without being cut off by an arbitrary clock. The cut usually comes either at a natural point or at a specific point where we continue from, in the following session.
This approach respects the unconscious timing inherent in the patient’s speech. Moments of insight, hesitation, or repetition can unfold naturally, revealing the structure of desire and the impact of repressed difficulties / conflicts. For those exploring psychotherapy in Melbourne, this method facilitates a space where meaning is discovered gradually through language.
As Vinciguerra (n.d.) notes, variable-length sessions provide a rhythm attuned to the patient’s psychic reality, enabling associations and resistances to surface in ways that fixed-time sessions may inhibit.
Therapeutic Implications
Variable-length sessions offer multiple advantages in therapy. They provide patients with a sense of continuity and responsiveness flowing to the next session: their speech and affect guide the session. This method encourages the emergence of material through narratives about oneself from session to session, helping to situate experiences within one’s personal history. Therapy may loosen old beliefs about oneself that have become habitual – even expectations about speaking for a fixed amount of time. After all, therapy is a therapeutic relationship in which one works through fixed beliefs about oneself, including how much time one imagines they have to achieve things in life.
For example, “I’m always upsetting everyone” can be explored and situated in one’s history. Who upset you? Who do you upset? What is set in motion across sessions is the very unfolding of these difficulties, which are gradually worked through. Between sessions, difficult feelings may arise, and at other times moments of joy may be experienced – but these preliminary sessions are only the start of sustaining an analytic bond over time. Psychoanalysis in Melbourne often takes many years, requiring consistency and trust.
In practice, this does not mean sessions are chaotic or arbitrary. The analyst maintains attunement to the patient’s discourse, listening for moments when intervention or closure is appropriate (Hewitson, 2010). The patient’s speech sets the pace: a profound insight may require a longer session, while a moment of resistance may warrant a conclusion to preserve the emergence of this working through of difficulties the following session.
This responsiveness reinforces the principle that meaning and change arise from the patient’s speech rather than solely from the analyst’s interpretations. For individuals accessing NDIS psychology or those seeing a Farsi-speaking psychologist in Melbourne, this patient-centred flexibility ensures that cultural and linguistic nuances are fully acknowledged in the therapeutic space.
Variable-length sessions also enhance the therapeutic environment by recognising the patient’s desire and subjectivity rather than subordinating them to an external schedule. This aligns with Lacan’s experience that the analytic encounter is structured around the relationship between desire, the law of the Other, and the emergence of the symptom (Lacan, 1953–1954; Lacan, 1977a).
Applications of Variability
Contemporary psychoanalytic practice continues to recognise the value of variable-length sessions. Werbart and Lagerlöf (2022) highlight that flexibility in session length can support engagement and insight, particularly in longer-term treatments. Patients may experience a stronger sense of being heard and understood when sessions respond to the flow of their speech, facilitating authentic encounters with their unconscious material.
By allowing the patient’s speech to indicate the rhythm, variable-length sessions enact Lacan’s principle that the analytic encounter is structured around language, desire, and the emergence of symptoms (Lacan, 1977b). Sessions become a dynamic space where the patient’s discourse leads and finds expression.
Conclusion
Variable-length sessions represent a patient-centred evolution in psychoanalytic therapy, aligning the rhythm of sessions with the emergent logic of the patient’s language and unconscious. By prioritising the patient’s speech, this method enhances the emergence of material, facilitates relationship dynamics, and creates a flexible space in which reflection and insight can occur.
Far from being a mere technical variation, variable-length sessions embody the essence of Lacanian psychoanalysis: listening attuned to desire, structured by the symbolic, and responsive to the timing of emerging material in analytic conversation (Lacan, 1953–1954; Freud, 1913/1958).
References
- Fiabbi, L., Genga, G., Pediconi, M. G., & Tsoias, V. (n.d.). Variable-Length Sessions: A Way for Contemporary Psychoanalysis?
- Freud, S. (1913/1958). On the Beginning of Treatment (Studies on Hysteria). Standard Edition, 2, 191–219. London: Hogarth.
- Hewitson, O. (2010). The Short Session. Lacan Online.
- Lacan, J. (1953–1954). Seminar I: Freud’s Papers on Technique. Unpublished seminar notes.
- Lacan, J. (1957/2006). Écrits: A Selection. New York: W.W. Norton.
- Lacan, J. (1969–1970). Seminar XVII: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis. Paris: Seuil.
- Lacan, J. (1977a). The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis. New York: W.W. Norton.
- Lacan, J. (1977b). Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English. W.W. Norton.
- Vinciguerra, R.-P. (n.d.). The Length of the Session.
- Werbart, A., & Lagerlöf, S. (2022). How much time does psychoanalysis take? The duration of psychoanalytic treatments from Freud’s cases to the Swedish clinical practice of today. Psychoanalytic Review, 109(1), 45–68.
Disclaimer
These writings are not therapy; they are general information about therapy. They are not a substitute for therapy or professional psychological advice. While care has been taken to ensure accuracy and reference to published research, therapy and psychoanalytic work are domains of ongoing study. A written text cannot replace the conversation that takes place in therapy sessions, which are dynamic, evolving, and centred on individual experience. Each person’s situation is unique, and meanings can only be spoken and explored within one’s own sessions. If something in these writings resonates with you and you are considering therapy, you are welcome to book a session.