Information Hub / Events Continuing Education
Endings — The Therapist’s Farewell: Retirement, Life Transitions, and the Healing Goodbye
1:30 PMWednesday, November 18 2026
12:30 PMWednesday, November 18 2026
11:30 AMWednesday, November 18 2026
10:30 AMWednesday, November 18 2026
9:30 AMWednesday, November 18 2026
8:30 AM
Within A Home Within’s model of open-ended, commitment-based therapy, endings can feel particularly fraught — yet they are unavoidable. This training picks up where Part I left off, turning directly to the clinical and ethical responsibility of ending the therapeutic relationship when the change is initiated by the therapist. Whether driven by retirement, relocation, illness, or another life transition, these moments cannot be deferred or skirted. We will explore how to engage endings honestly and with care — and how a thoughtful, mutual goodbye can itself become one of the most healing experiences we offer.
This course is eligible for 1.5 continuing education credits.
This course is suitable for LMHCs, MFTs, Social Workers, LPCs, and Counselors.
Introductory
By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
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Identify 2–3 clinical and relational dimensions of endings in psychotherapy, with particular attention to endings initiated by the therapist’s retirement or life transition — and why these cannot be avoided even within an open-ended therapeutic commitment.
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Describe the ethical and clinical responsibility to address endings directly and honestly with clients, including how to initiate and sustain that conversation when the ending is driven by the therapist’s own circumstances.
Dr. Heinemen is a clinical psychologist with 40 years of experience in private practice during which she has worked with children, adults, and families in both short- and long-term psychotherapy. Dr. Heinenmen has consulted with teachers, schools, attorneys, and organizations. Teaching, supervising, and mentoring have also been important in her career, and she has worked with a number of Bay Area training programs as well as individual mental health professionals. Her current practice has two primary focuses. One is working with adult families, helping them to navigate the many transitions that the movement through adulthood brings to family life. The other focus is working with separating and divorced parents, helping them to develop and maintain strategies for working together to raise healthy children. In both areas, she endeavors to help people find creative ways of working together to the benefit of all family members. She is also the founder of A Home Within, a non-profit organization dedicated to meeting the emotional needs of current and former foster children.
Bill Feinstein, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with over 50 years of experience serving adults, adolescents and families working from psychoanalytic systems and mindfulness frameworks. He provides consultation to clinicians and organizations. Formerly faculty at the Yale School of Medicine and cofounder of the Cutchins Center for Children and Families and of the Northampton Community Music Center. His five grandchildren provide him continuing education.