The literature on attrition points to the intake and first therapy interviews as sharing the highest dropout rates. Attrition is said to be related to client, therapist, and type-of-therapy variables. To look further into the intake session with an emphasis on client-therapist and client-clinic interaction variables, clients (N=45) rated their experience at intake on a 5-point scale designed to measure satisfaction with the clinic experience and with the intake or therapy session. Another group of clients (N=60), at a later time, were spot-checked immediately following intake session. Analyses of results indicated that the intake juncture and, to a lesser extent the first therapy session, were under the control of therapists and that therapist manner, bias, expectations, and preferences, influenced clients to continue therapy, or not. The findings suggest that therapists opt to work with appealing or challenging clients and thus may often restrict services unduly. (PAS)