Preparing Your Clients and Yourself for the Unexpected - Therapist Illness, Retirement, and Death

Sep 16, 2026

Termination is presented as a core element of a therapist’s professional will, linking ethical obligations to practical steps for maintaining consistent care when absence occurs. The article outlines how to create a Therapist’s Professional Will (TPW) and a trusted Emergency Response Team (ERT) so clients are handled appropriately during planned and unplanned disruptions. It addresses planning for incapacity, extended absence, illness, retirement, and death, while emphasizing the need for coordination with legal counsel and attorneys.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLetters

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time5 min

AccessFree to download

Professional Exchange

Termination and ethical responsibility

Creating a Therapist’s Professional Will (TPW)

Building an Emergency Response Team (ERT)

Planning for illness, retirement, and death

Legal and ethical considerations

PROFESSIONAL EXCHANGE Preparing Your Clients and Yourself for the Unexpected: Therapist Illness, Retirement, and Death by Ann Steiner, PhD, LMFT November/December 2011 Termination is a crucial aspect of a Therapist’s Professional Will. Dr. Steiner’s original article, published in this magazine in 2001 is one of CAMFT’s frequently requested articles. We have asked the author to contribute the following updated overview article. Have you ever considered what might happen to your practice, your clients, and files when you retire or if you suddenly become ill, or died? Did you know that CAMFT’s Responsibility to Patients section of the Code of Ethics requires that: “Marriage and family therapists are aware of their professional and clinical responsibilities to provide consistent care to patients and maintain practices and procedures that assure undisrupted care. Such practices and procedures may include, but are not limited to , providing contact information and specified procedures in case of emergency or therapist absence, conducting appropriate terminations, and providing for a professional will. (Sec. 1.3) Marriage and family therapists use sound clinical judgment when terminating therapeutic relationships and do so in an appropriate manner. Reasons for termination may include, but are not limited to, the patient is not benefiting from treatment; continuing treatment is not clinically appropriate; the therapist is unable to provide treatment due to the therapist’s incapacity or extended absence, orin order to avoid an ethical conflict or problem.” (Sec.1.3. 1) Do you have a plan? This article offers detailed advice on starting your Therapist’s Professional Will, or TPW, and assembling your back-up team of trusted colleagues, which I call the Emergency Response Team, ERT. It includes the basic steps to start your own system to help you and your clients in the event of planned and unplanned absences from practice. The first section provides an overview of the advantages of writing out how you want your clients handled if you have to be out of the office. The second section helps you decide who you want to have cancel your appointments and deal with clients if you are unable to. Recommendations and experiences of other therapists will help you create your own plan. Please be mindful that this information is not intended to replace legal advice. I recommend that you provide a copy of your Therapist’s Professional Will to your attorney to be kept with your Personal Will and Durable Power of Health Care Decisions. (You have done them both, right?) Of course, we all think such a plan is a good idea, but few therapists have thought through what would happen, let alone developed a simple, doable plan of action. Thinking about illness, disability, death, retirement and disruptions in our work are uncomfortable. It makes us squirm. As therapists we are not immune to denial. This is especially true when it comes to planning for our own absences from work. In the twenty plus years that I have supervised and taught November/December 2011 • THE THERAPIST PROFESSIONAL EXCHANGE therapists, this has been the most difficult area for therapists to deal with and manage. In fact, most just don’t deal with it. Most of us were not taught techniques for skillfully handling our expected or unexpected absences. The TPW is not just for therapists who are aging; each of us, regardless of age, should have a back-up team as well as a TPW. The concept of creating a TPW resonates with most therapists. Surprisingly few of us have actually done even a rough draft. “You will never die.” Is that what you were told when you applied to graduate school? That is one theory I formulated when I began asking colleagues and workshop participants how they handle their absences from work and what plans they have for retiring or dealing with medical emergencies. The level of denial about mortality and limitations among therapists is impressive.

FAQs

What ethical obligation does the article connect to a Therapist’s Professional Will?

It highlights the ethical duty to provide consistent care and procedures for emergency or therapist absence, including appropriate termination and providing for a professional will.

What is a Therapist’s Professional Will (TPW) used for?

A TPW is designed to document how clients should be handled when a therapist has planned or unplanned absences, including incapacity, extended absence, retirement, or death.

What does the article recommend for handling appointments during therapist absence?

It advises assembling a backup team, called an Emergency Response Team (ERT), to manage cancellations and client coverage when the therapist cannot do so.

Sep 16, 2026

Upload by Emma Wilson