The Professional Will: What It Is and How to Write It

When psychotherapists and their clients are facing abrupt or forced termination due to therapists’ sudden death, disability or other reasons that may force them to abruptly close their practices, planned terminations with clients or scheduled retirement are not possible. Having a professional will is the clinically, ethically and often legally correct thing to do.

While most therapists have a personal will and/or living trust, most do not have a professional will. This may result in unnecessary additional disruption to clients’ care and legal problems for the therapist’s estate should the therapist die unexpectedly and/or forced to unexpectedly close his/her practice. A professional will can be prepared with a relatively small amount of time, effort and planning.

This beginning/intermediate course is comprised of one audio recording (text transcript provided) “The Professional Will” which details the reasons for the creation of a professional will, and two short articles:a “Sample Professional Will, and “Ethics Codes On Confidentiality In Regard to Therapists’ Abrupt or Unexpected Death, Disability or Closure of Practice.” This course will provide you with an easy-to-use prototype of a professional will that you can implement into your practice. Additional resources and references are provided for further study, but they are not part of the course.