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Normally when the opener reverses direction it is related to the safety systems but all the safety functions try to open the door to prevent it from closing on anyone or anything. I know of no system that would reverse and start to close the door rather than opening it. There is no way to bypass the safety sensors, even for testing purposes, but if the sensors are lit and the door does not try to return to open then they should be okay.

Sometimes a problem with the rpm sensor or force settings can stop door movement after a short distance, but neither of these should start to close the door either.

I would start by running the opener with the door disconnected and at least determine if it is a door issue or opener issue. You can disconnect the door by pulling the manual release cord to disconnect the arm, see the illustration below. If the opener trolley, or car, does not stop every 6" once the door is disconnected then the problem is most likely something binding on the door itself. If the car still stops then something in the opener itself has malfunctioned.

If the problem is something in the opener itself there are a couple checks you can make once the cover is off. Check that the black plastic cap is all the way on the end of the motor shaft, if not the rpm sensor may not be able to determine when the door is moving and it would stop power to the drive motor causing the door to stop shortly after starting. You could also check the limit adjusters. Those are the long plastic threads with the metal tabs on them. The middle assembly moves as the door does and when one of the metal tabs contacts another it stops the door movement. So if a tab were bent or the limits were set too close together it could cause some of the symptoms you mentioned.