Professional Will

Does your T have a professional will? This is a will just for their business, not for their personal needs. It can specify how the T's clients will be told of their death, whether clients are welcomed to attend services, what happens if the client owes money to the T, and other things. My T doesn't have one.

I never asked and they never said anything. I was not all that worried about it. I figured if they died I would find out eventually one way or another

I don't actually know if my current T has one but my previous T kind of did. She was pregnant so knew she was going to leave but had everything organized in case of a pregnancy related emergency. So she had the plan set for the therapist each client would continue with and a designated therapist would access her files and contact all her clients to let them no.

So similar, but not exactly a professional will. It is a good practise to have that though. I should ask my current T if she does.

My former T did many years ago. I haven't asked current T, probably because I'm not particularly attached to her. I do have a concern about the adequate disposal of records, however, so I should ask her. She tends to be very professional in other sorts of matters, so I imagine she's made some provision with a colleague. She actually served as the "executor" for my former T.

my therapist says that if for some reason i dont hear from her for a month and cant get ahold of her, to call her sister (i have sisters name/ info) and get info from her. But I could also get info from her kids on their facebook pages if i needed to.

The main professional bodies in the UK require therapists to have a clinical will. He once told me that I would be contacted so "I would know, but that's all I would know.". I pointed out how cold and unfeeling that sounded and he agreed with me and said he would look again at the policy. I've not heard anything more since.

I think that that is more than unfeeling. The therapy relationship is so close and intimate, closer than most other relationships in life. For a client to get a call out of the blue stating that their T has passed and nothing more is simply not good enough. The bodies that govern psychotherapy practice should look again at their policy on this, and I think that regardless of policy, individual T's should make a plan for the provision of more information and support to be given to clients. To not do so is abuse. And damaging to the clients who are left to grieve by themselves whilst friends and colleagues of the T can share their grief and comfort each other. I know that some T's have public funerals, T's should consider this, and should give clients information about their death.

I don’t know if he has actual professional will, but because my T is in private practice with no office staff, I asked once how I’d know if something happened to him. He said he has it set up so his wife would inform clients. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. And what I didn’t ask, because this is really morbid, is what if something happened to both of them?

My current T has never mentioned it, although he must have one since he's a BACP member.

My probable-new-T mentions it in his contract, which I had never seen before and found interesting. I think it's great that he does.

I asked my therapist once what I would do if he died. He told me I could talk to his wife, who is also a therapist. I pointed out that she was likely to be useless in such circumstances, so he gave me a list of therapists who are his friends. He said no one had ever asked him about it before, which surprised me.

My T has a designated colleague (also a licensed mental health professional) who would be responsible for notifying all her clients and presumably providing referrals. Even ignoring the gigantic privacy concerns, I can't imagine a grieving spouse being able to do that huge job sensitively and supportively.

My T also mentioned once that she is willing to make provisions for certain clients to have things from her office if that's important to them and if they're still in the middle of working with her when she dies. I didn't want to seem too interested before but actually now I know exactly what item from her office I would want (the same little thing I take with me every time she goes on vacation).

Yes, after I had a pdoc suddenly die, I asked my therapist if she had something better in place than what this other person had, which were a series of screaming letters announcing the death and the urgent need to find someone else. It was horrifying, and seemingly endless because the letters kept coming. I guess the office did not want to be accused of abandonment, not that all caps letters/death notifications/pleas to go elsewhere was much better.

At any rate, that was well over three years ago when that happened and I recently asked my therapist if she ever followed up on that and she said she had, that she created a professional will and designated two people (other therapists) to make the calls. What they say will depend on the circumstances, since it could also be that she's not dead, but incapacitated or too ill to contact clients.

Since we just went through this I can say without a doubt T did not. She did have a plan, though. Her partners able rye o access her client email addresses. He reached out to the clients he could through there. Although from what I heard there were some people who he was unable to reach. They found out when they went to their next appointment from another therapist n the building. Ihave no idea about the financial part. I don't believe she had a plan for who the client should see as a new therapist. Jer significant other knows he has to keep the records for 7 years. He will get records to anybody who wants them.

I am not sure about Emdr T. We have discussed it since all that has happened. She said say that a company that she us affiliated with for billing and referrals recommends a professional will.

I don't know. I expect if something happened to her, her business partner (another therapist) would deal with it.

When Mushy Gushy was gravely ill, I think her husband coordinated with the therapist who had an office next to hers to send out letters.

Piaf had a professional will. A couple of others have designated colleagues to contact clients, but I don’t think they were wills proper.

no they don't

APA strongly urges their members to have a professional will executed by a credentialed colleague. It's a breach of confidentiality to designate a non-professional. Client confidentiality survives a T's death, and in the US, records preservation is mandated for 10 years. So part of the executor's responsibility is disposition of records.

I don't know if my T has one. I do know she has someone wgo will contact her active clients and counsel them if she dies. But I'm not sure if it's written up legally. Ex-T had one.

My T said that she has a process in place that included referrals but didn't expand and I didn't ask.