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Webinar

F25-703 Letting Go of the Work You Love: How to Retire and Close Your Practice with Integrity and Compassion

Total Credits: 4 Category I CEs

Categories:
700 Professional Growth & Development |  New
Instructors:
Lynn Grodzki, LCSW-C |  Margaret Wehrenberg, PsyD
Course Levels:
Advanced
Duration:
4 Hours 15 Minutes
Target Audience:
Social Workers, LCPCs, and Psychologists
Dates
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Description

When retirement, illness, or incapacity makes it necessary to close your practice, it can be challenging to ethically and compassionately prepare your clients for the end of therapy—especially when it’s not their choice. This workshop will guide you through how to navigate these difficult transitions.  

As a large cohort of therapists—many of them women—approach retirement, the complexities of leaving the profession are becoming more apparent. Retiring as a psychotherapist involves unique considerations that other careers don’t face. The process of letting go—of deep client relationships, professional identity, and peer collegiality—must be addressed for a smooth and fulfilling transition. 

If you’re among the 60,000+ therapists nearing retirement, you may be wondering:  

  • When is the right time to leave my practice?  

  • How will I feel about stepping away?  

  • How do I initiate the ending process of treatment in a way that is beneficial for clients?    

  • What legacy will I leave from the years spent in this work?  

This profession is unique in its emotional depth, connection, and complexity. It’s what makes it rewarding but also hard to let go of. This workshop will take you through a thoughtful process of reflection, planning, and discussion—before unexpected events force you into an unwanted retirement.  

 

This workshop is in accordance with and compliance with the NASW Standards with a focus on service, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, competence, and social workers’ ethical responsibilities to clients, to colleagues, in practice settings, as professionals, to the social work profession, to the broader society. 

This workshop is in compliance with the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners’ COMAR 10.42.03.06.A(5) and with the District of Columbia Board of Social Work 17-70-7008.4.   

Instructor

Lynn Grodzki, LCSW-C Related Seminars and Products

Lynn Grodzki is a Licensed Certified Social Worker - Clinical (LCSW-C) and a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with over 30 years of experience working as a psychotherapist and business coach for therapists. She is the author of six books including “Building Your Ideal Private Practice” and “Therapy with a Coaching Edge” and frequently presents at national conferences.

Margaret Wehrenberg, PsyD Related Seminars and Products

Margaret (Peg) Wehrenberg, PsyD, is the author of 11 books on the treatment of anxiety and depression, including her best-selling The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques. She has crossed the US and traveled internationally to train psychotherapists, working with a variety of organizations. She has also blogged for Psychology Today on depression.  

Agenda & Learning Objectives

AGENDA:

8:50 am – 9:00 am Log on 

9:00 am – 1:15 pm  

There will be one 15-minute break.  

Retiring Well: Therapist Readiness, Decision Points, and Planning 

  • Distinguishing between planned and unplanned retirements 

  • Navigating ambivalence: Understanding the push and pull factors around the decision to retire 

  • The Four-Stage Model of Readiness to Retire 

  • Preparing for the emotional and logistical complexity of ending a helping profession 

  • Releasing professional identity and developing a renewed sense of self 

Clinical Implications of Retirement: An Attachment-Centered Approach 

  • Understanding how client attachment styles influence responses to therapy closure 

  • Best practices to prevent client regression and avoid abandonment 

  • Integrating the ending of treatment into ongoing therapeutic goals and treatment planning 

  • Maintaining secure attachment during the final phase of therapy 

  • Managing transference and countertransference during the transition 

Ethical Issues for a Compassionate Ending of Therapy 

  • Ethical and effective communication with clients, including appropriate use of self-disclosure 

  • Key ethical responsibilities when concluding a caseload 

  • Understanding and preparing a professional will: components and importance 

  • Tools for healthy closure, including therapist self-awareness and emotional regulation 

The New Normal 

  • Final tasks: consolidating gains, providing referrals, managing crises, and saying goodbye  Assessing your retirement identity 

  • Developing Your mission statement for retirement 

  • Reflecting on your professional impact: A Legacy Exercise 

  • Meeting your future self 

1:15 Adjournment 

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Upon the completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Identify the four stages of behavioral change necessary for closing a caseload or career with ethical consideration and compassion.  

  • Anticipate potential client trauma and other complex issues that may arise from a therapist’s retirement, illness, or incapacity.  

  • Understand how early attachment styles in clients may be triggered by abrupt endings, and how unaddressed triggers can undermine prior progress.  

  • Develop clear, effective goals for clients’ remaining time in therapy to ensure a positive and productive conclusion.  

 

Bibliography & References

BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES

Cadwell, S., & Lipner, J. (2020). Ending a Psychotherapy Practice: A Retirement Tool Kit. group, 44(1), 57-60. 

Chernus, L. (2016) A therapist retires: working through issues of loss and betrayal. Psychoanalytic Social Work 23:2, pages 171-177. 

Clemens, Norman A. MD. A Psychiatrist Retires: An Oxymoron?. Journal of Psychiatric Practice 17(5):p 351-354, September 2011. | DOI: 10.1097/01.pra.0000405365.97666.5d 

Clodd, S. (2020). Facing the future: Exploring the transpersonal in contemplating retirement. A heuristic study. doi:https://doi.org/10.53074/cstp.2020.10 

Cohen, J. (2022). Mental health professionals preparing for cognitive decline and death: Denial and action. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 53(5), 530–540. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000446 

Fry, R. (2019). Baby Boomers are staying in the labor force at rates not seen in generations for people their age. Pew Research Center 

Grodzki, Lynn and Wehrenberg, Margaret: “Saying Goodbye to the Work You Love” Psychotherapy Networker Magazine, Jan 2024. 

Julia, M., Kilty, K., Richardson, V. (1995) Social worker preparedness for retirement: gender and ethnic considerations. Social Work. 10.1o93/sw/40.5.610; 610-620. 

Kojola, E., & Moen, P. (2016). No more lock-step retirement: Boomers' shifting meanings of work and retirement. Journal of aging studies, 36, 59-70. 

Langer, R. (2019). Psychotherapist retirement: What is lost and what is gained. Psychodynamic Practice, 25(4), 342-355. 

McKamy, E. (2015) Closed for business: reflections on a psychoanalytic psychotherapist’s voluntary retirement. Contemporary psychoanalysis, 4 v.51, 2015; p727-746. https://doi.org/10/1080/00107530.2015.1080591 

Norcross, J. C., & Prochaska, J. O. (1983). Psychotherapists in independent practice: Some findings and issues. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 14(6), 869–881. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.14.6.869 

Price, C. A. (2000). Women and retirement: Relinquishing professional identity. Journal of aging Studies, 14(1), 81-101. 

Schierock, M. and Strauss, B. (2023) Sooner or later you are no longer needed – even as a psychotherapist: a systematic literature review on how psychotherapists deal with their own aging process. Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik, Medizinische Psychologie, 08 Mar 2023, 73(7):270-282. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2003-9590 

Straforini, C. M. (2021). Calling Time on Timelessness: A Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist’s Narrative of Retirement. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 57(3-4), 473-505. 

Straforini, C. M. (2023) Our Time is Up: a patient’s perspective on a psychotherapist’s retirement. Attachment, Volume 17, Number 1, June 2023, pp. 43-57(15 

Szinovacz, M. (2020). Women and retirement. In Growing old in America (pp. 293-303). Routledge. 

Course Completion & CE Information

Category I Maryland BSWE Requirement

The Office of Continuing Professional Education at the University of Maryland School of Social Work is authorized by the Board of Social Work Examiners in Maryland to sponsor social work continuing education programs. This workshop qualifies for 4 Category I Continuing Education Units. The Office of Continuing Professional Education is also authorized by the Maryland Board of Psychologists and the Maryland Board of Professional Counselors to sponsor Category A continuing professional education. 

 

ASWB Information 

University of Maryland School of Social Work Office of Continuing Professional Education, #1611, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 2/11/2024-2/11/2027.  

To receive ACE credit, full attendance is required; no partial credits will be given for partial attendance. 

 

Certificate Access

To access the evaluation and certificate, click on the orange certificate button in your CPE account. Once you complete the evaluation, access to the certificate will be available.  

Live Interactive Webinars (Cat I) and Live Webinars (Cat II) - Allow up to 30 minutes post-training for attendance to be verified, then you will be able to access the evaluation and certificate. 

In Person Trainings - Please allow five (5) business days post-training for attendance to be verified, then you will be able to access the evaluation and certificate. 

 

Please refer to the tab "Live Interactive Webinar Policies & FAQs" for UMSSW Office of CPE policies regarding all live interactive webinar related matters. Contact our office at cpe@ssw.umaryland.edu for more information.  

Evaluation

Participants will have access to the evaluation after attendance has been verified. Evaluations will be available for one (1) week after the workshop has ended.  

After one (1) week, participants will no longer have access to the evaluation and will have to contact CPE about reactivation.

Target Audience

Social Workers, LCPCs, and Psychologists

We welcome anyone interested in the topic!

 

Live Interactive Webinar Platforms

LIVE INTERACTIVE WEBINAR PLATFORMS

The Office of Continuing Professional Education hosts Live Interactive Webinars through Zoom. This platform offers a high quality and user-friendly webinar platform for our registrants.

System Requirements:

  • Operating Systems: Windows XP or higher; MacOS 9 or higher; Android 4.0 or higher.
  • Internet Browser: Google Chrome; Firefox 10.0 or higher.

Our system is not compatible with the Safari web browser.

  • Broadband Internet Connection: Cable, High-speed DSL and any other medium that is internet accessible.

**Please have your device charging at all times to ensure that your device does not lose power during the webinar.

Course Interaction Requirements:

To participate in Live Interactive Webinars, you MUST have a device that allows you to view the presentation on screen and hear the instructor at all times. We do not allow participants to call-in from their phones or mobile devices and solely listen to the presentation. Participation in Live Interactive Webinars is mandatory.

Our webinar policies can be found on our website by clicking here.

Webinar Policies & FAQs

Click The Link to View The Webinar Policies & FAQs

https://umbsswcpe.ce21.com/Page/live-interactive-webinar-procedures-policies-4129

 

 

Code of Conduct

The Office of Continuing Professional Education at the University of Maryland School of Social Work adheres to the NASW Code of Ethics. This policy is to ensure that the training environment for social work professionals remains respectful, productive, and conducive to learning. Disruptive behavior that interferes with the learning process, disrupts the training experience for others, or undermines the integrity of the program will not be tolerated.

 

Expectations for Participant Engagement:

In alignment with the NASW Code of Ethics and the University of Maryland Baltimore Code of Conduct, participants are expected to demonstrate professionalism, which includes respecting confidentiality, maintaining a collaborative and respectful tone, and contributing positively to the group dynamic. Disclosures made during the training (e.g., case studies or personal reflections) must be handled with care and in accordance with ethical and legal guidelines.

All participants in the training program are expected to:

  • Engage actively in the learning process and show respect for the opinions and contributions of others.
  • Demonstrate professionalism in both attitude and behavior, maintaining respect for instructors, peers, and the training environment.
  • Maintain open communication by expressing concerns or disagreements constructively and respectfully.
  • Follow the guidelines and expectations provided by instructors and facilitators.
  • Support a collaborative learning environment where all participants feel valued and safe to contribute.

 

Instructors and CPE staff reserve the right to dismiss participants who do not adhere to ethical/professional principles and standards. If removed, CEs will be adjusted to reflect the time attended, unless otherwise specified. 

ADA Accommodations

If you are requesting ADA accommodations, please contact our office via email at least two weeks prior to the workshop date. Requests after that date may not be fulfilled.  

Our email address is cpe@ssw.umaryland.edu.  

Late Fees and Refunds

The base price is $85, which includes CE credit.  

Late Fee: On 09/24/25, a non-refundable late fee of $20 is added to the base price. Late fees cannot be refunded or applied to account credit.  

Cancellations: **ALL cancellations will be subjected to a $35.00 administration fee.**  To be eligible for a refund or CPE account credit, cancellations must be made at least 24 hours before the workshop. 

For more information, please read the general policies on our website.  

 

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