Nothing lasts forever, including therapeutic relationships. Therapy can end in lots of different ways, but what constitutes a good goodbye? We dig into the research on termination and the related ethics codes and come away with a surprising conclusion: firing a client is almost always ethically acceptable.

Show Notes:

• Ending Therapy: The Therapeutic Relationship During the Termination Phase

• 6 Strategies for Ethical Termination of Psychotherapy

• Practice recommendations for reducing premature termination in therapy.

• A meta-analysis of psychotherapy dropout.

• Client initiated termination of therapy at NHS primary care counselling services

• Comparing therapist and client perspectives on reasons for psychotherapy termination.

• Client and therapist views of contextual factors related to termination from psychotherapy: A comparison between unilateral and mutual terminators

• The Oxford Handbook of Psychotherapy Ethics

• The History and Ethics of the Therapeutic Relationship

• Termination and Abandonment: A Proactive Approach to Ethical Practice

• How to Fire a Client

• How to End Therapy the Right Way

• 7 Tips for ‘Breaking Up’ with Your Therapist