Who Helps the Helper?: Supporting Bereaved Clinicians After Client Death.

Abstract

Losing a client to suicide or a substance overdose can bring up a layered, complex concern for counselors, who may be faced with the duality of their professional obligations and liability to the deceased client, alongside the loss of a deeply personal therapeutic relationship. Upon losing a client due to mental health concerns, several clinical supervisors and agencies may often focus exclusively on the several ethical and liability issues and concerns surrounding intervention reassessment and suicide prevention planning, there is very little research or standardized policy on professional support offered to the bereaved clinician. The confidential nature of the therapy relationship results in disenfranchised grief for the clinician, who is unable to publicly acknowledge or grieve the loss, necessitating the need for policy implementation for agencies as well as greater awareness, sensitization and training on supporting bereaved clinicians for therapists and their supervisors alike. This paper aims to offer a comprehensive literature review on the experiences of bereaved clinicians and the role of the clinical supervisor in supporting the clinician during the grief process. This paper also examines existing protocol recommendations for clinical supervisors of mental health counselors and therapists in the aftermath of client death, to support clinicians navigating such losses.