Most of us recognise the question, even if we don’t often say it out loud: am I still the right practitioner for this client? The relationship may be good. The client may be engaged. Yet something has shifted: progress has stopped, their needs have changed, or circumstances mean you can no longer offer what they need.

Asking that question doesn’t mean you’ve let your client down. It’s one of the most responsible things a practitioner can do. This article looks at when referring a client on may be the right step, why it’s often harder than it sounds, and how to make the handover smooth and safe.

When referring on may be the right step

Clinical reasons

Sometimes the work itself points to a referral:

• Progress has plateaued. Goals set months ago haven’t moved, and sessions feel more like maintenance than treatment.

• Needs have moved beyond your competence or modality. For example, trauma that calls for EMDR, an eating disorder that needs specialist input, or symptoms that may need a psychiatric assessment or medication review.

• The relationship has changed. The connection that carried the early work may no longer feel the same. Your client may have become more guarded, sessions may feel harder to settle into, or a difficult moment may not have fully eased.

When this happens, check rather than guess. Have we revisited the goals together? Have I discussed my observations and reflections with the client and with my supervisor? Has my approach offered all it can, or is the fit between us no longer serving the client’s best interests?

Practical reasons

Not every referral is about the work. Sometimes the reason is purely practical:

• You’re fully booked and can’t take on a new client or offer more frequent sessions.

• You’re facing a longer absence, such as parental leave or extended sick leave, and your client needs continued support.

• You’re reducing your hours, relocating or closing your practice.

• Your client needs something you can’t offer, such as in-person sessions when you work online, or appointments outside your hours.

Whatever the reason, talk it through with your client openly and honestly, and agree the next step together.

Clinical and practical reasons are equally valid grounds for referring a client on. Our regulatory standards and ethical codes, whether HCPC, BPS, BACP or UKCP, ask us to work within our competence and put the client’s needs first. Knowing when to refer is part of that.

Why it’s harder than it sounds

Deciding to refer is only half the task. The other half, finding the right person, is where many referrals stall.

Most of us refer to people we already know and trust, because it removes uncertainty and gives us confidence in the recommendation we’re making. When no one comes to mind, the real work begins: searching directories and professional groups, following up recommendations, then checking registration, insurance, safeguarding and data-protection arrangements. All of this comes before deciding whether we’re comfortable putting our name behind someone we may never have worked with. It takes clinical time that most of us don’t have.

Yet skipping those checks carries its own risk. Recommending someone simply because they put themselves forward in a closed group or appeared in a search means placing a client’s care, and our own professional reputation, in the hands of someone we know very little about.

There are quieter pressures too. Wanting to see the work through, keeping a steady caseload and worrying that a client will feel rejected can all nudge us to wait a little longer, often without our noticing. That’s one reason supervision matters: a plateau is often easier to see from outside the work than from inside it.

As a result, referrals are often delayed or never made. Yet letting the work quietly wind down isn’t a neutral choice. Explained well, an ending becomes a handover. Left unexplained, it can feel like rejection or abandonment to the client, however unintended. It can even shake their belief that the right help exists for them at all.

How My Triage Network can help

This is where My Triage Network comes in. Drawing on 20 years as a clinical psychologist, I personally assess every referral. I then connect clients with practitioners from a network I’ve already vetted and whose work I know: more than 100 psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors, plus 20 allied health professionals, including psychiatrist affiliates for clients who may need an assessment or a medication review.

Research supports the value of careful matching. In a randomised clinical trial published in JAMA Psychiatry, patients matched to therapists based on those therapists’ measured strengths with their particular difficulties improved significantly more than patients assigned in the usual way, with the greatest benefit for those with more severe difficulties.¹

My approach builds on this. I make expert recommendations based not only on clinical need and therapeutic fit, but also on practical needs such as location and budget and, where relevant, preferences around gender, age and cultural background.

Referring is free and takes a few minutes:

• Refer and stay involved. With your client’s consent, complete the Get Triaged form yourself (select “My client”). It takes 1–2 minutes, and you can remain part of the process throughout.
  
  

• Or let your client lead. Share the form with them, and I’ll be in touch with them directly.

I review every referral personally and aim to get back to you promptly with tailored recommendations. For more complex situations, or where speed and closer involvement from me matter most, a Priority Triage Consultation is available as a paid option at the end of the form.

With My Triage Network, you don’t have to navigate the search and transfer alone. I stay involved throughout, with regular updates along the way. And if an alternative to my original recommendation is needed, feedback is used to find a practitioner better suited to the client’s needs.

For example, a CBT therapist I work with recognised he had taken his client as far as CBT could. He referred her to me, I introduced her to a practitioner trained in schema-focused work and EMDR, and she continued her therapy the very next day.

All referrals are handled confidentially and in line with UK GDPR. Every referral also helps expand access to mental health care through My Triage Network’s Giving Forward initiative: after every 20 successful connections, I pay it forward, and the next person I connect receives £100 towards whichever service they book.

A handover, not an ending

Referring a client on isn’t giving up on them. It’s a professional judgement made in their interest: recognising when their needs have gone beyond what you can provide, clinically or practically, and making sure their care continues responsibly. If you have a client you can’t take further or can’t see right now, I’d be glad to help.

Refer a client through Get Triaged. It’s free, takes 1–2 minutes, and I personally review every referral.

¹ Constantino MJ, Boswell JF, Coyne AE, et al. Effect of Matching Therapists to Patients vs Assignment as Usual on Adult Psychotherapy Outcomes: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021;78(9):960–969. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.1221