Please join us for an exciting event on Saturday, September 20th from 8:30am to 1pm. We are hosting a seminar entitled Ethical and Emotional Considerations of Closing a Practice – Planned or Unplanned: The Importance of a Professional Will. The event will feature Dr. Linda Knauss and Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank. A full event description is below. Please register now for this program to satisfy 3 Ethics CEs for licensure.
We hope to see you all there!
-Dana Sinopoli, Sara Bressi, and Matt Whitehead
(apologies for cross-postings)
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Ethical and Emotional Considerations of Closing a Practice – Planned or Unplanned: The Importance of a Professional Will
September 20, 2025 from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm
Goodhart Hall
Bryn Mawr College
150 North Merion Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Program Description
This highly interactive workshop invites participants to consider strategies for closing a practice that are both ethical and realistic. Conscious and unconscious emotional factors play an important role, and there will be opportunity for participants to explore these.
Closing a practice can either be temporary such as for illness or family reasons, or can be permanent due to retirement. And, sadly, practices can close suddenly and unexpectedly, as in the tragic event of a therapist’s death. The process of preparing to close a professional practice is governed by ethical, regulatory, and risk-management considerations. In preparing for professional retirement or cessation of practice there are many issues to consider. This workshop will discuss assessing one’s own competency, building communities to support this process, licensure, malpractice insurance, record keeping including financial records, notification of clients, and preparing a professional will – as well as the emotional struggles practitioners can face in making these very same preparations.
A recent report in the NY Times, The Ghost In The Therapy Room, documented one patient’s experience of losing his psychoanalyst suddenly. Dr. Jeffrey Axelbank, the subject of that article, will share his experience and the complex issues it raised, both personally, and for psychoanalysts. In interactive experiential small group discussions, he will also invite participants to consider their own mortality, the impact of that on their patients, and their resistance to taking necessary steps to writing a Professional Will.
Number of CE Credits: 3 Ethics Credits
Cost: $108.55 for licensed professions; $76.54 for early career professionals (10 years or less since graduation)
Learning Objectives
At the end of the program, each participant should be able to:
1) Identify the relevant issues related to retirement
2) Discuss how to maintain records in keeping with state laws, HIPPA, and APA Record Keeping Guidelines
3) Identify at least 2 reasons to write a professional will and what information it should include
4) Identify at least one source of resistance they may personally face that may prevent them from completing a professional will.
5) Describe at least one inhibition they may personally face in discussing their own health status with patients
Target Audience
This program is intended for licensed professionals and will be presented at the intermediate instructional level
Agenda
8:30 – 9:00 am Registration and Light Breakfast
9:00 – 11:00 am Presentation by Linda Knauss, PhD, ABPP
11:00 – 11:30 am Break and Snacks
11:30 am – 1:00 pm Presentation by Jeffrey Axelbank, PsyD
Presenter Information
Linda K. Knauss, Ph.D., ABPP is a Professor Emerita at Widener University’s Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology. Dr. Knauss is the Past-chair of the American Psychological Association’s Ethics Committee, the American Board of Professional Psychology’s Ethics Committee, the Pennsylvania Psychological Association's Ethics Committee, and has served as Co-chair of the Philadelphia Society of Clinical Psychologists’ Ethics Committee. In 2024, Dr. Knauss received the American Psychological Association Ethics Committee Lifetime Award for Accomplishments in Ethics Education. Dr. Knauss taught courses in ethics at Widener University, Immaculata University, and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She has authored several book chapters and journal articles on ethics and has taught many continuing education workshops on a variety of ethical issues. Dr. Knauss maintains a private clinical practice where she sees children, adolescents, adults, and families.
Jeffrey Axelbank, Psy.D. is a psychologist, coach, and management consultant based in Highland Park, NJ. His clinical work specializes in group therapy, and treating chronic pain and other mind-body conditions. Following his undergraduate education in Electrical Engineering, Jeff worked as an Electronic Design Engineer before transitioning to his psychology career. He earned a doctorate at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, and in 2000 earned a certificate in Organizational Development and Consultation in the Organization Program at the William Alanson White Institute. As a psychologist, Jeff has been active in professional advocacy, fighting for the rights of people seeking mental health services. For this work, he was named Psychologist of the Year in 2011 by the New Jersey Psychological Association. In addition, he was awarded the prestigious Peterson Prize in 2013 by the Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology for “outstanding contributions to professional psychology.” In his spare time, Jeff is an avid skier, bicyclist, and rock musician.
References
American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx
Barry, E. (2025). The Ghost in the therapy room: The New York Times, published online July 24, 2025
Baturin, R. L. (2022, April). What is a professional will? Pennsylvania Psychologist, 82(3), 11.
Brody, S. (2013). Entering night country: Reflections on self-disclosure and vulnerability. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 23(1), 45–58.
Deutsch, R. A. (2014). A voice lost, a voice found: After the death of an analyst. In
R. A. Deutsch (Ed.), Traumatic ruptures: Abandonment and betrayal in the analytic relationship. (pp 32–45). London: Routledge.
Frommer, M. S. (2016). Death is nothing at all: On contemplating non-existence: A relational psychoanalytic engagement of the fear of death. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26(4), 373–390.
Galatzer-Levy, R. M. (2004). The death of the analyst: Patients whose previous analyst died while they were in treatment. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 52(4), 999–1024.
Handelsman, M., Gottlieb, M. C., & Knapp, S. (2005). Training ethical psychologists: An acculturation model. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36, 59-65.
Heilbrunn, C. (Ed.) (2020). What happens when the analyst dies: Unexpected terminations in psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.
Junkers, G. (Ed.). (2013). The empty couch: The taboo of ageing and retirement in psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.
Knapp, S., Younggren, J. N., VandeCreek, L., Harris, E., & Martin, J. (2013). Assessing and managing risk in psychological practice: An individualized approach (2nd ed.). The Trust.
Lentz, K. (2024). When the analyst dies and the patient goes missing: An ethical crisis in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 34(1), 52-70.
McWilliams, N. (2017). Psychoanalytic reflections on limitations: Aging, dying, generativity, and renewal. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 34(1), 50-57.
Rendely, J. (1999). The death of an analyst: The loss of a real relationship. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 35(1), 131–152.
Slattery, J. M., Knauss, L. K., & Knapp, S. (2024). Ethics in Action: The personal side of retirement. Pennsylvania Psychologist, 84(6), 34-35.
Spayd, C. S., & O’Leary Wiley, M. (2022, April). Closing a professional practice: Clinical and practical considerations. Pennsylvania Psychologist, 82(3), 4-7.
Disclosure: This program and its instructors have not received any commercial support and there are no known conflicts of interests involved.
The Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis of Philadelphia (IRPP) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. IRPP maintains responsibility for this program and its content. For any questions or concerns about this program, please contact Matthew Whitehead, PsyD (matthewwhiteheadpsyd@gmail.com), Dana Sinopoli (dlsinopoli@gmail.com), or Sara Bressi, PhD, LSW (sbressi@brynmawr.edu).
