diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/SlackSession.java b/src/main/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/SlackSession.java
index 3c8bff21..0708d8a9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/SlackSession.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/SlackSession.java
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ public interface SlackSession
 
     void connect() throws IOException;
 
+    void disconnect() throws IOException;
+
     SlackMessageHandle deleteMessage(String timeStamp, SlackChannel channel);
 
     SlackMessageHandle sendMessage(SlackChannel channel, String message, SlackAttachment attachment, SlackChatConfiguration chatConfiguration);
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/SlackWebSocketSessionImpl.java b/src/main/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/SlackWebSocketSessionImpl.java
index 6fd8060b..7c285664 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/SlackWebSocketSessionImpl.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/SlackWebSocketSessionImpl.java
@@ -126,6 +126,7 @@ private <E extends SlackEvent, L extends SlackEventListener<E>> void dispatchImp
     private long                              lastConnectionTime         = -1;
 
     private boolean                           reconnectOnDisconnection;
+    private boolean                           wantDisconnect             = false;
 
     private Map<Long, SlackMessageHandleImpl> pendingMessageMap          = new ConcurrentHashMap<Long, SlackMessageHandleImpl>();
 
@@ -150,11 +151,21 @@ private <E extends SlackEvent, L extends SlackEventListener<E>> void dispatchImp
     @Override
     public void connect() throws IOException
     {
+        wantDisconnect = false;
         connectImpl();
         LOGGER.debug("starting connection monitoring");
         startConnectionMonitoring();
     }
 
+    @Override
+    public void disconnect()
+    {
+        wantDisconnect = true;
+        LOGGER.debug("Disconnecting from the Slack server");
+        disconnectImpl();
+        stopConnectionMonitoring();
+    }
+
     private void connectImpl() throws IOException, ClientProtocolException, ConnectException
     {
         LOGGER.info("connecting to slack");
@@ -221,6 +232,25 @@ public void onOpen(Session session, EndpointConfig config)
         }
     }
 
+    private void disconnectImpl()
+    {
+        if (websocketSession != null)
+        {
+            try
+            {
+                websocketSession.close();
+            }
+            catch (IOException ex)
+            {
+                // ignored.
+            }
+            finally
+            {
+                websocketSession = null;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     private void startConnectionMonitoring()
     {
         connectionMonitoringThread = new Thread()
@@ -235,6 +265,11 @@ public void run()
                     {
                         // heart beat of 30s (should be configurable in the future)
                         Thread.sleep(30000);
+
+                        // disconnect() was called.
+                        if (wantDisconnect)
+                            this.interrupt();
+
                         if (lastPingSent != lastPingAck || websocketSession == null)
                         {
                             // disconnection happened
@@ -298,7 +333,29 @@ else if (reconnectOnDisconnection)
                 LOGGER.debug("monitoring thread stopped");
             }
         };
-        connectionMonitoringThread.start();
+
+        if (!wantDisconnect)
+            connectionMonitoringThread.start();
+    }
+
+    private void stopConnectionMonitoring()
+    {
+        if (connectionMonitoringThread != null)
+        {
+            while (true)
+            {
+                try
+                {
+                    connectionMonitoringThread.interrupt();
+                    connectionMonitoringThread.join();
+                    break;
+                }
+                catch (InterruptedException ex)
+                {
+                    // ouch - let's try again!
+                }
+            }
+        }
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/TestAbstractSlackSessionImpl.java b/src/test/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/TestAbstractSlackSessionImpl.java
index b6c63969..aa5204b2 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/TestAbstractSlackSessionImpl.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/TestAbstractSlackSessionImpl.java
@@ -35,6 +35,11 @@ public void connect()
 
         }
 
+        @Override
+        public void disconnect()
+        {
+        }
+
         @Override
         public SlackMessageHandle sendMessage(SlackChannel channel, String message, SlackAttachment attachment, SlackChatConfiguration chatConfiguration)
         {
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/TestSlackJSONMessageParser.java b/src/test/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/TestSlackJSONMessageParser.java
index da333795..37af92c0 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/TestSlackJSONMessageParser.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/ullink/slack/simpleslackapi/impl/TestSlackJSONMessageParser.java
@@ -56,6 +56,11 @@ public void connect()
                 channels.put(channel3.getId(), channel3);
             }
 
+            @Override
+            public void disconnect()
+            {
+            }
+
             @Override
             public SlackMessageHandle sendMessage(SlackChannel channel, String message, SlackAttachment attachment, SlackChatConfiguration chatConfiguration)
             {