Ethics and Professional Wills is a 1-hour online continuing education (CE) course that guides psychologists through the process of developing a professional will.

This course provides practical information and resources on how to meet the APA Ethics Code standards regarding pre-planning for the eventual expected or unexpected closure of your professional practice, while being sensitive to understandable possible anxiety and/or resistance surrounding this topic. Business strategies, including sample forms ready to be personalized for your use, are offered.

Clinical considerations are addressed in discussions of how to best meet patients’ needs during the termination of your work with them and their possible transfers to new clinicians, possible countertransference responses you may experience during expected closings and preparing for unexpected closings, and how to balance patients’ and your own needs during planned temporary or permanent business closings such as a maternity leave or retirement. Issues in addressing possible incapacitation of the psychologist are reviewed.

Finally, pre-planning for possible unexpected practice closings, as would occur after the sudden incapacitation or death of a psychologist, are discussed in detail, including how to develop a professional will, the designation of a professional executor, and arranging for confidential storage and disposition of patient records, following ethical and regulatory guidelines. A sample and fill-in-the-blank professional will are provided, facilitating your completion of a basic professional will by the end of the course.

Course #11-33 | 2020 | 23 pages | 10 posttest questions