ABSTRACT
As therapists and supervisors, are we mindful of the existential fact that we are, each one of us, going to die and yet cannot predict the time? And are we sufficiently aware of the possible impact of our death on our clients and supervisees? This chapter explores these two questions through an enquiry into the experience of clients and therapists who have lost, through death, either their therapist or their supervisor. It also asks what we as therapists and supervisors can learn from their experience and whose responsibility it is to bring the therapist/supervisor’s mortality into the therapeutic space. This research has its roots in my own sense of existential frailty. It seeks to highlight some of the choices we as therapists face as we confront our mortality, and the way these may impact on our clients and supervisees.
