Following my previous workshop, When a Client Dies by Suicide: Navigating Professional and Personal Impact, this session builds on the themes explored there and incorporates feedback and reflections from participants.

The death of a client by suicide is one of the most challenging experiences a therapist can face. While much attention is rightly given to suicide prevention, far less is said about what happens to the practitioner afterwards.

In this session, we will explore some of the less discussed aspects of the experience. We will consider how training and professional messages about suicide can sometimes leave therapists carrying shame, responsibility and the question, _“Should I have done something differently?”_ We will look at the difference between experiencing a client’s suicide and other forms of bereavement, including the particular impact of the therapeutic relationship, professional responsibility and the absence of a conventional ending to the work.

We will also explore what “closure” might mean following a client’s suicide, and whether closure is always possible or even necessary. How do therapists make sense of an ending they did not choose? What can help when there are unanswered questions, hindsight and a relationship that feels unfinished?

Building on the previous workshop, we will consider how therapists can prepare for the possibility of this experience, what support is useful afterwards, and how we might think differently about responsibility, grief and returning to practice.

This is not a therapy group, supervision session, or forum for detailed personal disclosures. Rather, it is an opportunity to develop understanding of a rarely discussed aspect of therapeutic work, increase preparedness, and reflect on how therapists can navigate the professional and personal impact of client suicide.

You will leave with reflective frameworks and points of support that you can integrate into your practice.

Description supplied by the event organiser.