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.

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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