When is it Time to End?
- Action steps to improve timing in case closure
- Scripts and clinical markers for planned endings
- Outreach when termination is unplanned
- Ethical concerns when keeping clients in treatment too long
- Issues with premature termination
- Last-minute disclosures and their significance
- Boundary risks for therapists and clients at the end of treatment
Best Practices for High-Risk Closures
- Ending plans for clients who are at risk of self-directed harm
- How to close therapy for a client with dependency issues
- Ethically or legally complex cases
- Doorknob disclosures – strategies for containment and closure
Ending as Part of Healing
- Attachment and the therapeutic alliance
- Constructive, robust clinical objectives for final sessions
- Use of metaphors for normalizing and integrating closure
- Common teaching moments in ending sessions
- Therapeutic summary letter for clients
- “Future self” meditation to support integration and forward movement
Case-Closing Essentials
- Referral dos and don’ts
- When to incorporate additional supports
- Documentation requirements
- File storage and eventual destruction following HIPAA
- Professional will and tail coverage for long-term client protection
Additional Considerations
- Loss, guilt, and other therapist reactions
- Limitations of the research and potential risks


