Workshop Description:

Many clinicians are faced with crossroad moments in treatment, when for a variety of reasons, they must decide if they are going to continue working with a client or terminate by referring or transferring them out. We will look at the Code of Ethics for guidance as it relates to issues of termination, therapist safety, and best practices. We will also process the 5 distinct types of termination that can occur in the therapeutic relationship. With that as a didactic underpinning, we will discuss a number of case scenarios that present ethical dilemmas and raise the question of whether or not to continue treating versus terminating. Issues including working with treatment resistant depression, involuntary clients, addressing unrelenting self-destructive behavior, disagreements related to medication, boundary violations, working with narcissistic clients, and addressing issues related to traumatic transference will be explored.

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Learning Objectives:

1. Explain the Code of Ethics guidelines regarding the clinical justification for terminating a client.

2. Identify the 5 types of possible termination processes that occur in the client-therapist relationship.

3. Explain why a planned termination is the most desirable and clinically beneficial to the client.

4. Explore at least four different case scenarios that pose ethical dilemmas for clinicians and clinically justify either terminating or continuing to treat the client.