Quote:
Originally Posted by Petra5ed
I think the problem here really is you can't force someone to provide you services. Once a T decides to terminate the logic on their end is either that they aren't helping you, or that they don't want to help you. Either one and it makes all the sense to them to cut you off, the fact that it bothers you just points to the fact that you need therapy, which was the case before they saw you at all. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just that this is the way it is. I work with clients... I've fired clients before... I'm not a therapist mind you, but in my case it's usually people who I can't stand working with or who stop paying me. I'll provide copies of what we've done and a referral if they ask. I can't imagine being forced to continue working with anyone or anything once I've decided not to...
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I just have to jump in because this is such a painful subject for many clients who have been terminated in the less than humane and respectful manner, myself included.
I agree with Puzzle. It's not about forcing the therapist to work with someone they no longer wish to work with. Of course, they have the right to terminate the work with someone when they feel they can no longer be useful. Not only they have the right to do so, but it's also their ethical responsibility to do so when they feel they can no longer be of help.
It's about HOW they terminate, and I assert that therapist's position requires them to conduct termination with utmost respect for the client even if they hate the client's guts. They should never communicate to the client in any way, implicitly or explicitly, that the termination is somehow the client's fault. "I no longer feel I am competent enough to work with your specific problems" is one of the appropriate ways to phrase it when break the news to the client and this is the only objectively truthful reason for termination. No matter how difficult the client may be, the difficulty they present only means that the therapist came to his/her limitations and should honestly acknowledge that and refer client to someone more competent to attend to client's unique needs.
In regards to "firing" the client, it is the therapist who, by definition, can be "fired", not the client, because the client pays the therapist for service. Client is the one who hires and who fires therapist because client is the one who pays. It's a fact of business. It may be an uncomfortable fact for some business providers to accept, but it's a fact.
Also, termination for non-payments is a completely separate issue, at least here in CA where I am licensed. Our ethical standards suggest that it's unethical to see clients without collecting payments for a long time because when the balances accumulate, that creates a dual relationship with an additional creditor-debtor dynamic. You, as a therapist, may be pissed that you haven't been paid for some time, but you don't terminate client because you are pissed. You terminate them because it's unethical for you to continue working unpaid for the reason mentioned above, and this is how you explain it to client.