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Dear list, The thread of making provision for clients in the event of the death of the therapist, or any unplanned absence, started me thinking, so I thought I'd post this to the list. Apologies for any omissions. I don't usually post to the list, afraid of attempting to teach grandmothers to suck eggs :>) Using the Traynor & Clarkson article, from memory, the key point is to appoint a therapeutic executor - a fellow professional, someone you trust, but not someone so close that they would need time out from work to grieve if you died unexpectedly. Often a mutual arrangement works well. Depending on your individual circumstances and requirements, that person needs to know how to gain access to your locked files, undertakes to destroy client notes, inform clients of your death, perhaps offer sessions, which could be one-off, or to become that client's therapist, or referral information, as appropriate. With agency work there should be some kind of safety net within the agency, so perhaps all that would be needed would be to destroy any process notes that are kept at a distance from the agency records. Clients should be taken care of within the agency, but it might be useful to bring this up within the agency to check. It might be useful to draw up a list of people to be informed immediately, which would include the therapeutic executor and supervisor, to reduce the number of clients who might hear of a death from 'other sources'. Private practice clients (and supervisees, for that matter) need very careful consideration. How do they learn of the death of their therapist?, and from whom? In preference to your bereaved partner or relative, the therapeutic executor can take responsibility for breaking the news to private practice clients, supervisees, and perhaps also informing an agency or work setting. In addition to considering appropriate arrangements for me, I also checked with my then therapist what were her arrangements in the event of her death, which led to very useful discussion. Clearly one's arrangments need to reviewed if circumstances change. I have recently taken on a new job and also now have a 'modest' private practice, both of which require arrangements to be considered and updated. Hopefully it's something we'll never need to make use of, but these things can and do happen. Hope this is useful. Best wishes, Janet %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%