DIGEST-Volume-10-Issue-2-FULL ISSUE

17 TPC Digest 17 | TPC Digest Our study was a survey of counselors who had experienced a client suicide ( N = 228). We strove to understand how institutional responses as well as supervision experiences impacted the severity of counselor survivors’ experiences of client suicide. We also examined which policies and procedures agencies tend to use in response to client suicide, which responses counselor survivors found to be most helpful, and what counselor survivors believed that agencies should change. Our findings supported the supervisory relationship as an important factor in the impact of client suicide on a counselor survivor. Specifically, counselor survivors with strong relationships with their supervisors described less severe responses to client suicide. This desire for strong relationships continued in participants’ desires for agency responses. Participants described strong desires for agency responses that demonstrated support for the counselor survivor as a person (e.g., additional counseling, increased empathy, debriefings related to the counselor’s experience). Conversely, participants interpreted some agency responses (e.g., chart audits, action-oriented debriefings) as the agency trying to manage liability and perceived these responses as unhelpful or even harmful, as the agency seemed to be “pointing the finger” or assigning blame to the clinician. Our participants often described themselves as being unprepared for client suicide. They described receiving relatively few trainings through their education and employment related to prevention of suicide and responses to client suicide. However, those that had received these trainings found them quite helpful. As such, in our article we explored training issues (building knowledge and self-efficacy) that agencies should consider with regard to preparing counselors to work with suicidal clients and to respond to client suicide. Nathaniel J. Wagner, PhD, LMHC, is an assistant professor at Indiana State University. Colleen M. L. Grunhaus, PhD, NCC, ACS, LPC, is an assistant professor at the University of the Cumberlands. Victor E. Tuazon, PhD, NCC, LPC, is an assistant professor at New Jersey City University. Correspondence may be addressed to Nathaniel Wagner, 401 N. 7th Street, Terre Haute, IN 47809, nathaniel.wagner@indstate.edu. Read full article and references: Wagner, N. J., Grunhaus, C. M. L., & Tuazon, V. E. (2020). Agency responses to counselor survivors of client suicide. The Professional Counselor , 10 (2) , 251–265. doi :10.15241/njw.10.2.251