ODW2026 Navigating Retirement for Therapists with Integrity and Compassion

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.

Whether you’re already planning ahead—or have just started considering it—this on-demand webinar on retirement for therapists will guide you through how to navigate these difficult transitions with clarity and confidence.

Why Retirement for Therapists Requires a Unique Approach

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 might 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 course supports you through a thoughtful process of reflection, planning, and discussion—before unexpected events force you into an unwanted retirement for therapists.

Tools and Strategies to Support Ethical Retirement for Therapists

In this session, focused on each stage of the ethical and compassionate process of closing your practice, you will learn to:

• Use our four-stage readiness for retirement model to contemplate and prepare for retiring, whether you work in a private practice, agency, medical, community, or educational setting.
• Navigate the emotional and psychological challenges of stepping away from a deeply value-driven profession.
• Utilize our worksheet timeline to clarify your process for ending work.
• Mitigate the risk of traumatic reactions of clients when therapy ends, whether planned or due to unexpected circumstances.
• Use attachment theory to help both you and your clients prepare to end treatment.

You’ll also gain practical guidance on how to:

• Develop communication strategies, including scripts and rationales, to notify clients and colleagues of your plans.
• Address your own feelings of loss, guilt, and anxiety surrounding caseload closure and other roles such as supervision, training, or management.
• Prepare for the losses that often take therapists by surprise: those of client relationships, professional identity, peer collegiality, and intellectual stimulation.
• Celebrate the individual skills, talents, and gifts that defined your career, and utilize our worksheet to recognize your unique professional legacy.
• Tailor a retirement to your personal situation, helping you make the most of the next phase of your life.

Whether you are years away or already contemplating your exit, this webinar on retirement for therapists offers guidance, reassurance, and tangible tools to support your next chapter.

About the Presenters

Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, is a nationally recognized expert in practice development and retirement coaching for therapists. With decades of experience as both a psychotherapist and business coach, she brings deep insight into the emotional and practical realities of ending a therapy career with grace.

Margaret Wehrenberg, PsyD, is an internationally known clinical psychologist and acclaimed author specializing in anxiety, resilience, and therapist well-being. A dynamic and compassionate educator, she is known for her ability to translate complex clinical concepts into actionable strategies therapists can use immediately.

Together, Lynn and Margaret offer a unique and thoughtful perspective on retirement for therapists—grounded in clinical expertise, ethical integrity, and lived experience.

1. Identify the four stages of behavioral change necessary for closing a caseload or career with ethical consideration and compassion.
2. Anticipate and plan for how to work with clients’ early attachment styles that can be triggered by therapist-directed treatment ending.
3. Develop clear, effective goals for clients’ remaining time in therapy to ensure a positive and productive conclusion.
4. Recognize and address therapists’ needs in the retirement process (accounting for the stage of readiness to retire) to ensure ethical endings with clients and a satisfied, smooth therapist transition into retirement.

This training offers 4 hours of direct contact (not counting breaks or lunch). It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their individual state boards/regulatory body to verify CE requirements for their license to practice.

Attendees of the original live broadcast receive instructions on how to obtain their Certificate of Participation at the end of the course and in the “recording ready” email, which is sent 1-2 days after the live course has ended.

Attendees watching the previously recorded/on-demand version must complete a Post-Webinar Quiz with a passing grade of at least 80% to verify their attendance and receive their Certificate of Participation.

Note: The course recording is available only after the live broadcast has ended.

The Certificate of Participation includes:

• Name of participant.
• Title of training.
• Name of presenter plus their credentials.
• Number of hours of training.
• Date of training.
• Confirmation of 100% attendance at the original live broadcast OR a passing grade of at least 80% on the recorded on-demand version post-course quiz.

Get details about CE credits for Canadian and non-US international participants.

Get details about CE credits for US participants.

Please check with your regulatory body/organization to ensure that this certificate is sufficient proof for you to claim CE credits.