Surpassing the Quota

SUMMARY The author's experience of several patient suicides provides her with an understanding of her own style of working through this professional crisis. Several studies investigate the number of suicides therapists can expect in their careers. The literature on therapists' reactions to patient suicides describes how therapists are affected, and offers models of stages therapists go through in coping. Therapists are likely to feel personally wounded when patients kill themselves, this wounding appearing as guilt, shame, or denial. Several suicides may increase shame. Facing these injuries is part of the healing therapists must undergo to survive and thrive in work with suicidal patients. In spite of similarities in reactions from case to case, each healing is unique. Experiencing several patient suicides may influence therapists to assess their limitations in working with difficult patients.