There is a quiet truth most clinicians carry but rarely speak aloud: we do not always get to close up shop on our own terms...
Yet therapy is built on continuity, on trust extended across time, on the promise that someone will be there to hold the thread when stories feel fragile, unfinished, or as yet unspoken. However, many psychotherapy practices exist without a clear plan for what happens if the clinician becomes suddenly unavailable due to illness, incapacity, or death.
When continuity of care is left unplanned, the burden does not disappear. It simply shifts—often onto grieving loved ones, confused colleagues, and clients who are left without guidance at a vulnerable moment.
A professional will is not about anticipating loss with fear. Instead, it is about tending the ethical responsibility of being in a position of public trust and sacred partnership.
Continuity of Care Is an Ethical Commitment
Our ethical codes emphasize beneficence, non-malfeasance, and client welfare, not only during active treatment, but also at its interruption or conclusion. Sudden endings can be destabilizing, particularly for clients with trauma histories, attachment injuries, or complex relational wounds.
Without a plan:
- Clients may not know whether their therapist is safe, ill, or gone
- Records may be inaccessible or mishandled
- Referrals may be delayed or absent
- Licensing boards and business entities may receive no formal notice, with trickle down effects to loved ones and legacies
These gaps are not failures of care—they are simply rectifiable absences of infrastructure. Ethical stewardship asks us to look beyond our own presence and consider what supports the work after us.
Why Informal Plans Are Often Not Enough
Many clinicians name a trusted colleague, partner, or family member as their executor with the best of intentions. Yet psychotherapy practices hold a unique convergence of legal, ethical, emotional, and clinical responsibilities.
Managing a practice closure requires:
- Knowledge of state-specific licensing and record-retention laws
- Familiarity with informed consent language, HIPAA requirements, and emerging laws and regulations around patient privacy
- Sensitivity to clinical rupture, grief, and transition
- Capacity to communicate clearly with clients, boards, business partners, and governmental agencies
Without specialized training, even well-meaning executors can feel overwhelmed—especially while navigating their own loss. They may even inadvertently violated ethical precepts or established laws.
Ethical care includes protecting the people we love from having to carry work they were never meant to hold.
A Trauma-Informed Approach to Practice Closure
When a clinician becomes unavailable, clients deserve more than notification. They deserve careful transition.
Trauma-informed closure prioritizes:
- Clear, compassionate communication
- Timely referrals aligned with client needs
- Respect for client autonomy and pacing
- Secure handling and lawful disposition of records
Closure, when handled with intention, makes space for dignity for everyone touched by the loss of the therapist. It also honors the work that was done.
Professional Will Executor Services at Cultivating Capacity
I offer Professional Will Executor services for clinicians licensed in California, Washington, D.C., Idaho, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington State, states where I am personally licensed or permitted to practice. I do this in part because I have to know the laws for my own practice in these areas, which means I have an ethical stake in it as much as you do.
This service is designed to ensure continuity of care, ethical compliance, and relational integrity in the event of your incapacitation or passing.
As your Professional Will Executor, I manage the full scope of practice transition with sensitivity and precision, including:
- Notifying clients with care and clarity
- Providing tailored referral options
- Securing, copying, and lawfully destroying records in accordance with applicable laws
- Informing licensing boards, business entities, and other regulatory bodies
- Holding the emotional weight of closure so your loved ones do not have to
This work is not administrative alone—it is relational, ethical, and deeply human.
As part of my belief in ethical stewardship, my own practice relies on a multi-layered system of support; this means in the event of my own death or incapacitation, you will also be notified.
Note: If you are licensed in another state, I am happy to connect you with a trusted colleague who offers comparable services.
A Final Reflection
A professional will is not just about planning for the end of your work. It is about ensuring that the care you have cultivated continues to be held with respect.
Your practice is part of your legacy.
Ethical stewardship is how that legacy remains intact—steady, humane, and worthy of the trust placed in you.
If you would like to explore Professional Will Executor services or would like to schedule a consultation as you begin drafting your professional will, you are welcome to Get in Touch.