How the Door Closes – Skilful Endings in Coaching and Therapy
How the Door Closes – Skilful Endings in Coaching and Therapy explores the complexity of bringing professional relationships to a close. Prompted by an ending that evolved into a formal complaint, a seasoned coach-therapist examines endings through the lens of Dr Richard Strozzi-Heckler’s Rhythm of Energy, Dr Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing, ethical frameworks, and practitioners’ lived experience. The author offers ways to contract with the end in mind, to remain conscious of concluding throughout the work, and to complete at the right time and in the right way for each unique client engagement.
Clare Myatt is a senior somatic coach-therapist working internationally with clients in person and online. She helps people navigate challenge and change with grounded, body-based awareness and compassion.
“Clare speaks with an intimacy and authenticity that reflects her lifetime of learning and rigorous self-inquiry.”
Dr. Richard Strozzi-Heckler
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What people are saying about Love & Imperfection: a therapist’s story:
“In How We Say Goodbye – Skilful Endings in Coaching and Therapy, Clare Myatt takes one element of the helping relationship and opens it up with compelling honesty and insight. Our relationship to endings as helping professionals comes into focus as we work with clients whose own relationships to endings may be complex and messy. Myatt does not seek to reduce this to a neat and tidy conclusion, but instead draws learning from the complexity which is essential for coaches and therapists, to be able to support their clients.
Myatt’s writing is clear, accessible, and honest about the challenges in ending well. She draws back the curtain on the helping relationship and explores how endings may be experienced from both sides. Myatt is open and vulnerable about the flaws of the helper and in doing so, her writing is reminiscent of Irvin Yalom, in its honesty about the sometimes-messy realities of this work.
A must read for helping professionals.”
Pete Hamill, Senior Teacher at Strozzi Institute and author of Embodied Leadership
Author of Embodied Leadership
“Clare Myatt’s How the Door Closes is a masterclass in the neglected art of saying goodbye in therapy and coaching. This essential guide provides a profound and deeply moving account of how to navigate the complexities of endings with grace, skill, and somatic wisdom. Myatt generously offers her own painful accounts, as well as her acquired wisdom, to provide a guide for transforming potentially awkward endings into a powerful catalyst for long-term growth. The book radiates with expertise and heartfelt, practical suggestions that will fundamentally change avoidance into connection in your clients’ final sessions. This is the support you’re looking for if you are ready to engage with the delicate dance of the closing door and the client’s legacy of feeling fully seen, honoured, and empowered by their relationship with you.”
Greg Madison, Ph.D. Author, Existential Psychologist and Lecturer, Host of The Living Process podcast
“How we end always follows us into our future. Using case studies coupled with theory, Clare Myatt honestly and skilfully opens the door into this significant, rich and critical world of dignified endings. An engaging and accessible read.”
Merle McKinley, Embodied Transformation Practitioner and Somatic Coach Educator
“Clare Myatt’s How the Door Closes highlights a real gap in coach training. While focused on endings, the book invites a broader reflection on how we approach completion in our own lives and how this shapes our work with clients. The author encourages coaches to consider endings from the outset: introducing the topic up-front, noticing tell-tale signs of discomfort with endings and being curious about what would truly serve the client. This thoughtful exploration of completion, replete with valuable case studies from therapy and coaching makes clear that the standard “review and next steps” conversation is not enough, there is so much more to acknowledge in the complexity of concluding the coaching relationship.”
Beverley McMaster Executive Leadership Coach
“This book will probably be of great interest to therapists from all approaches and also to current and potential clients, however it is at its core, a human story of courage to change an unsatisfactory situation, of how love (agape) can be embodied and of determination to create a meaning life.”
‘Clare Myatt offers an honest, insightful and deeply thought-provoking exploration of endings in coaching, weaving lived experience and rich case studies throughout. She shines a light on a rarely explored aspect of personal and professional growth, helping us better understand how our relationship with endings can profoundly impact both ourselves and our clients.’
Báirbre Meehan Focusing-Oriented Coach, Supervisor and Educator
“A riveting read… I wish I’d had this book in my training as a Counsellor and for ongoing professional development to help me navigate endings with an easeful flexibility.”
Marie McGuigan Renal Nurse Specialist and Trauma Counsellor (Ret’d)