⚖️How to Support Clients in your Absence?

Taking the best care of our clients requires us to think about unexpected situations such as illness or death and how our clients will be taken care of in these jarring moments.

Last, week I wrote about professional wills. These wills can go beyond simple details about where to find client information to outlining detailed guidelines about how to support clients in the event of our sudden absence.

Once again, this can be an uncomfortable thought, inviting you to confront feelings about mortality and illness. Try and engage with gentleness.

Here are some things that can be explored-

• Emergency Response Plan: The sudden absence of a therapist can be very difficult for clients generally and may also trigger transference responses. To address this, we can appoint a therapist to conduct a triage to understand individual client needs and formulate a plan accordingly.

• Bridge therapist: A therapist who can take some bridge sessions as clients process the loss and prepare to transition to a new therapist.

• Letters written by the therapist: These are letters you write to the clients with things you’d like to say to them in that moment- as a form of care, support and offering closure.

Next week, will talk more about the colleagues taking on these tasks, last one in this mini-series!

Until next week,
Suvrita

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