What goes through a therapist's head when a client dies from their illness?

Whether it be from overdosing, eating disorders, suicide, violence, etc. what do they think? How do they feel? How does it affect them? Does it depend on the client?

Good question. I suppose it depends on the therapist

I've asked L similar questions. One, if she's ever lost a client to suicide, 2. Has she ever had someone close to her commit suicide. And 3. How would she feel if I died. She answered each one. I'm only willing to share 3. She said she would be devastated if I died. She would grieve, but it wouldn't destroy her either. I know this is true because I had a health scare, and we were both devastated by the news. She even asked my permission to share with a colleague of hers so she could get some support. When we've talked about if I committed suicide, she said that she actually had a fear that my family would sue her.

But I think death, whatever the cause, affects people in general differently.

I also know L lost someone close to her about 3 years ago when we just started. She grieved and coped. She took care of herself, and she was devastated. T...I don't think T would grieve for me as much as L would. We weren't as close as I am with L. T never shared how she would feel, but I also don't think I asked her.

Questions like this don't make sense to me. People have human responses to humans suffering, it's impossible to say how therapists feel as if they are a homogenous blob. How do teachers feel about students? How do hairdressers feel about heads of hair? How do painters feel about walls? How do fishermen feel about fish? Actually, this is quite an interesting little game. Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor. An individual client can make a guess about how their therapist might feel if they died, but beyond that, who knows? At best, it's a guess because no one knows how they will feel about a hypothetical situation. I think some people take comfort from the idea that their therapist would be devastated if they died. If you want to know if your therapist is affected by your life and interactions (and your hypothetical death), why don't you ask them?

I think this depends on a lot of different factors. First, how long does the T already know the client and how is the relationship. Then, it depends on how one reacts to death in general. For example, for all loved ones (pets, grandparents, other people) that I have lost, I grieved at the very most for a day. I do not know why, but it doesn't seem to affect me that much.

My T has told me multiple times that "he'd not like it" if I died. I assume he'd be upset, but he'd probably also think about whether/what he did wrong. Overall though, I hope a T would manage to work through the emotions and provide support for their other clients still, life goes on and if a T can't deal with this part of the job, then they are probably in the wrong profession.

Mine said once (I forget the context--may have been during a health scare), "If you were to die tomorrow, I'd be very affected." (Which, for him, is suggesting a lot of emotion--I can't imagine him ever using a term like "devastated," possibly for his wife or son.)

He did answer when I asked him about losing patients once, mainly about those who took their own lives. I think at least one definitely fell in that category, and there were a couple who passed from drug overdoses, where it wasn't clear if it was intentional or not. He said one particularly affected him because it was a heroin overdose, and the client hadn't even shared that they were using. So it was rather shocking. (He's been practicing around 20 years, so it's not too surprising to me that he's lost a few clients.)

He also mentioned one who'd passed from natural causes, where the client just didn't show up after being very reliable, then didn't respond to a call or text about it. Eventually, a relative called my T to let him know. (That was from my asking what would happen if I just stopped showing up, as I've been very reliable. Would he at least try contacting me once? The answer was yes.)

When I attempted and almost succeeded, my counselor (in IOP that I was in/out of for years so basically therapy for me because none of my therapists gave a shyt) said she was wicked scared, gave me a hug, and said she was glad I'm still here and then we had an extensive talk about what else I could be doing to prevent something like that from happening again.

I'm sure it's because we got along well and had an extensive past that she seemed to have genuinely cared, but I'm sure even with the new clients that they're possibly not particularly fond of, there's got to be some sort of feeling of responsibility or loss.

I doubt the two I hired would have noticed I was not there.
But in general I don't think the therapist's reaction or lack of one would matter one way or the other

I use to have fantasy's that I was lying dying and T would walk in to my bed and sit broken hearted.. It gave me comfort.
I eventually told T and she said "do you feel you only deserve
My care if you were dying?".. At that time I guess my answer was yes.

They care. A lot. More
Than
You know

it’s quite possible