Your clinical will: why every UK therapist needs one (and how to actually keep it updated)

Most UK therapists know they should have a clinical will. Few actually do.

The ones who do often have it written down somewhere — a sealed envelope with a solicitor, a Word document on a hard drive, a paragraph in their main will. Then years pass. Executor contact details change. The named colleague retires or moves. Client preferences shift. The document quietly drifts out of date, becoming less useful exactly when it might be needed most.

This guide covers what a clinical will is, what UK professional bodies expect, what it actually needs to contain, and the practical question almost no one talks about: how do you keep it current?

It's not a comfortable topic. It's also professional responsibility. If you've ever had a client ask “what happens if something happens to you?” — this is the answer.

What a clinical will actually is

A clinical will (sometimes called a professional will or therapeutic will) is a document that sets out what happens to your therapy practice — and specifically to your clients — if you can no longer practise. It addresses scenarios most therapists never want to think about: sudden death, serious illness, loss of capacity, or any other circumstance that prevents you from continuing your clinical work.

A clinical will is notthe same as your personal will or your business will. Your personal will deals with your estate. Your business will deals with the commercial side of your practice — premises, leases, equipment, ongoing contracts. Your clinical will is narrower and more specific: it's about your clients. Their continuity of care. Their records. The way they find out what's happened. Whether and how they're referred onwards.

At its heart, a clinical will exists to protect the people who can't protect themselves in your absence — the clients who would otherwise be left wondering why their therapist hasn't replied to their message, or worse, never knowing what happened.

What BACP and NCPS expect

UK professional bodies have grown increasingly explicit about clinical will expectations over recent years.

BACP's current Ethical Framework addresses practitioner incapacity and death. The forthcoming New Ethical Framework, launching in Autumn 2026, is expected to firm up this language further. Early indications from the second consultation suggest BACP will expect every accredited practitioner to have documented arrangements in place. NCPS guidance is similarly clear.

The direction of travel is unambiguous: this is moving from “best practice” toward “expected practice.” Practitioners who haven't documented their clinical will arrangements may find themselves at increasing regulatory and ethical risk — and at risk of failing the very clients they've spent their careers supporting.

What needs to be in it

A clinical will doesn't need to be a long legal document. What it needs is to be specific, current, and findable.

The core elements:

Your nominated clinical executor.A named individual (or individuals) who has agreed to act on your behalf if you can no longer practise. Most therapists nominate a trusted colleague — often a supervisor, peer in their professional body, or a fellow practitioner from their network. The executor should be someone who understands the professional context: they need to know what client confidentiality means, what records require, and how to handle clients with sensitivity.

Their full contact details — email, mobile, postal address — need to be current. This is where most clinical wills fail. The named executor was perfect five years ago; by the time they're needed, they've changed jobs, retired, or simply moved.

How your clients should be told.Most clients have a preferred contact method (text, phone, email). Many have given clear instructions about what to do if you can't reach them directly. Your clinical will should reflect their preferences — not impose a one-size-fits-all communication approach.

The notification itself needs careful handling. Clients should be told what's happened in a way that doesn't reveal the therapeutic relationship to third parties (their partner, family, or housemates). This typically means contacting each client directly via their stated preferred channel only.

What happens to client records. Records retention, secure storage, and eventual destruction need clear instructions. BACP-aligned retention is typically 7 years from end of therapy, but your clinical will should specify what happens during and after that window. Will records be transferred to your executor for safekeeping? Returned to clients? Held by Sessionly or a similar provider per their standard retention policy?

Account winding-down.Practical instructions for closing down the practice: the email account, the website, the booking calendar, subscriptions like Sessionly itself. Without this, accounts can sit active for months — sometimes generating misleading “the therapist is available” signals to potential new clients.

Onward referrals where appropriate.Some clients will need active referrals to continue their work with another practitioner. Your clinical will can specify referral preferences — particular colleagues you trust for trauma work, couples therapy, specific demographics — so your executor doesn't have to make these clinical judgments alone.

Why “in a drawer” doesn't work

The traditional approach to clinical wills has been a paper document, signed and sealed, lodged with a solicitor or a trusted colleague. There's nothing wrong with this in principle. In practice, it tends to fail in predictable ways.

Outdated contact details.The named executor's mobile number from 2018. The supervisor's email from a job she left three years ago. By the time the document is needed, the people named are often unreachable through the channels listed.

The document itself becomes hard to find. Family members don't know it exists. The solicitor's firm has been acquired. The trusted colleague has moved house. The clinical will exists somewhere — but no one can locate it under time pressure.

Updates become an annual chore that doesn't happen. Knowing you should update your clinical will is not the same as updating it. Most practitioners don't revisit theirs from one year to the next, and changes accumulate quietly.

Client preferences drift.A client who joined your practice five years ago has different communication preferences now. The clinical will from the time they started doesn't reflect what they'd want today.

The result: a document that should provide certainty in crisis instead provides a starting point of confusion. Executors then make judgement calls under emotional pressure, hoping they're getting it right.

What Sessionly does

We've built clinical will documentation directly into Sessionly, available to all Private Practitioner subscribers.

Inside your settings, you can:

• Activate clinical will documentation for your account
• Nominate one or more clinical executors, with full contact details (email, mobile, postal address)
• Document your client notification preferences — how you'd like your executor to handle communicating with your clients
• Set instructions for record handling, account winding-down, and referrals where appropriate
• Keep the document live and current— update it any time, from anywhere, as easily as you'd update any other setting

Because it lives inside the software you already use daily, your clinical will stays current. Update your executor's new mobile number in the same five minutes you'd take to update a client's address. Change your record handling preferences when your supervisor changes. Adjust referral instructions as your professional network evolves.

When the time comes — and we hope it never does — your nominated executor contacts our support team directly. We verify their identity carefully using a multi-step process that includes separate one-time codes sent to the email and mobile you recorded in your clinical will, plus identity and authority documentation. There's a cooling-off period built in, and we always notify your registered Sessionly email address before any action is taken.

Once we've verified the executor properly, we act on your documented preferences. We export your client list and records, transfer them securely to your executor, and (on their written instruction) notify your clients in the way you specified.

The whole process is human-mediated, with safeguards designed for exactly the high-stakes context this represents. We've built it to be careful, not automated — because automation isn't appropriate for this kind of decision.

As a therapist who runs both a private practice and a CIC, I've thought a lot about what would happen to my clients if I couldn't continue. Having my clinical will live inside Sessionly — where it's as easy to keep current as any other setting — means it's no longer a document I keep meaning to update. It just stays current.

What this means for your practice

Whether or not you use Sessionly, here's the practical action:

If you have a clinical will already:when did you last update it? If the answer is “more than 12 months ago,” it almost certainly needs reviewing. Contact details change. Executor availability changes. Your practice evolves. A clinical will is a living document, not a one-off task.

If you don't have one yet:start it this week. It doesn't need to be perfect. A 200-word document with your executor's current contact details, your client communication preferences, and basic instructions for record handling is dramatically better than nothing. You can refine it over time.

If you use Sessionly:activate clinical will documentation in your settings. Add your executor. Set your preferences. Review it at the same time you do your annual CPD audit — twice a year if you want to be conservative.

If you don't use Sessionly:whatever system you use, build a habit of reviewing your clinical will at predictable intervals. Tie it to something you already do — your accountant's year-end, your supervision contract review, your BACP renewal.

A final word

This isn't a comfortable topic. It also isn't morbid. It's professional responsibility — the same responsibility that prompted you to think about supervision, professional indemnity insurance, and proper note-taking. Your clients deserve the same care in continuity planning that you give them in every session.

Most practitioners who finally sit down and write their clinical will say afterward that they wish they'd done it years earlier. The relief of knowing it's done — and that it's current — outweighs the discomfort of facing the topic.

If Sessionly's clinical will documentation could help, we'd be glad to see you. If it's not for you, the most important thing is that you have something — anywhere, in any format — that your clients can rely on.

Sessionly's clinical will documentation is available to all Private Practitioner subscribers. Start a 14-day free trial →

Mark Devereux is the founder and CTO of Sessionly, UK practice management software for therapists, counsellors, and counselling agencies. He builds Sessionly with his wife Kate Devereux, an NCPS-registered therapist who runs both a private counselling practice and Earth Wisdom Therapy CIC.