title: Ethics and endings in group psychotherapy: saying good-bye and saying it well.
abstract: Endings in group psychotherapy are suffused with complexity and potential conflict, some of which entail ethical quandaries. Ethical issues attending endings in group therapy are explored through a discussion of informed consent, time and role boundaries, privacy and confidentiality, unplanned endings, therapist-initiated termination, and competence. Findings from an exploratory survey of members of the American Group Psychotherapy Association and clinical-ethical vignettes are presented to highlight these issues. Clinicians need to develop and maintain ethical fitness and awareness, including attunement to personal responses, to endings and loss.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Antioch New England Graduate School, 40 Avon Street, Keene, NH 03431, USA. Lmangione@antiochne.edu
authors.forename: Lorraine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mangione
authors.forename: Rosalind
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Forti
authors.forename: Catherine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Iacuzzi
mesh_terms: D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004644:Emotions; D004995:Ethics, Professional; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000941:ethics*; D011614:Psychotherapy, Brief / Q000941:ethics; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000941:ethics*; D013997:Time Factors