Therapeutic and Legal Issues for Therapists Who Have Survived a Client Suicide

Breaking the Silence

Kayla Weiner

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317825227
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Abnormal Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The death of a patient is every therapist's worst nightmare. Even more frightening is the debilitating silence that surrounds a therapist after the death of a client. What do you do? How do you proceed with your personal and professional life? Until now, advice on surviving a patient's suicide has been scarce.

This book examines this much-overlooked topic to help you continue to live and practice confidently. The authors of this courageous book mix first-person narratives with professional strategies to help therapists deal with the emotional and legal consequences that follow the loss of a client.

Therapeutic and Legal Issues for Therapists Who Have Survived a Client Suicide provides you with:

• models of coping strategies for clinicians after a client completes a suicide
• an examination of factors that compound the trauma for the therapist survivor
• examples for dealing with a client's family
• suggestions for developing curricula for training institutions
• recommendations for supervisory guidelines
• explanations of—and means of mitigating—legal liability

This practical book describes various ways of dealing with clinician and supervisory responsibilities after a client's self-inflicted death. It will show you how to minimize the legal risks of working with suicidal clients and help you regain your sense of professional competence if a suicide occurs. New methods of screening and treatment assistance are offered.

With about 30,000 suicides occuring the the United States annually, and many of those people in treatment at or near the time they commit suicide, thousands of clinicians face this trauma yearly. The clear, specific, therapeutic and legal guidelines you'll find in the book, as well as the philosophical discussions, make it a vital read for therapists, counselors, social workers, nurses, supervisors, and educators in mental health training institutions.

Index

AAS. See American Association of Suicidology (AAS)

American Association of Suicidology (AAS), 32, 67

American Counseling Association, 66

American Psychological Association (APA), 12

Monitor of, 32

American Psychological Association (APA) Division 12, Section VII, 44

Anderson, G.O., 3, 4, 6, 25

APA. See American Psychological Association (APA)

APPIC. See Association of Psychology Postdoctural and Internship Centers (APPIC)

Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC), 44

Bauer, G., 31

Bellah v. Greenson,98

Benjamin, G.A.H., 5, 95

Berman, A.L., 63, 66

Binswanger, L., 18

Bissell, B.P.H., 14, 15, 16

Black's Law Dictionary,96

Bongar, B., 43, 47, 50, 51

Brown, H.N., 38, 43, 72

Cantor, P., 68

CDC. See Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 1

Chemtob, C.M., 5, 11, 12, 31, 46

CISD. See Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD)

Cleiren, M.P., 65

Client suicide

confidentiality issues related to, 6

experience of losing patients to, 13-16

factors related to, 60-61

incidence of experience with, literature review related to, 44-45

male therapist's perspective on, 77-78

multiple, in psychotherapy practice, 9-24

finding one's own limits, 20-21

healing after, 18-20

shame due to, 16-18

prevalence of, 11-13

psychological autopsy of, 28

risk factors for, 5

supervisors involved in

suggestions for, 50-51,52-53

trainee-related, 50-52

therapeutic issues related to, 6-7

therapists as survivors of, 71-81. See also Therapist(s), as client suicide survivors

lit...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• About the Editor
• Table of Contents
• Introduction: The Professional Is Personal
• Surpassing the Quota: Multiple Suicides in a Psychotherapy Practice
• Who, What, When, Where, How, and Mostly Why? A Therapist's Grief over the Suicide of a Client
• Don't Forget About Me: The Experiences of Therapists-in-Training After a Client Has Attempted or Died by Suicide
• Suggestions for Supervisors When a Therapist Experiences a Client's Suicide
• Therapists as Client Suicide Survivors
• Touching the Heart and Soul of Therapy: Surviving Client Suicide
• Suicide and the Law: A Practical Overview for Mental Health Professionals
• Index