A Guide to Psychotherapy and Aging

"A Guide to Psychotherapy and Aging: Effective Clinical Interventions in a Life Stage Context" provides a comprehensive overview of clinical interventions with older adults. Despite stereotypes that older people respond poorly to treatment, both research and clinical experience confirm that older people respond well to appropriate interventions. Written by experienced clinicians, the chapters in this edited volume describe the major psychotherapeutic approaches that have been used with older people, including behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, interpersonal, psychoanalytic, and family therapy. These chapters combine theory and research with case examples but emphasise the practical decisions that clinicians working with older people face in both individual and institutional settings. Filling out these therapeutic techniques are chapters devoted to special issues that are critical to effective practice with older adults, including assessment, the interface of medical and psychological treatment, interventions in nursing homes, and ethical considerations. The 12 chapters in this volume are divided into two parts.
The first provides chapters on specific interventions and the second covers contextual information that is needed for those working with this population. The volume is aimed at experienced clinicians who are interested in working with the elderly (whether in individual practice or in institutional settings), graduate students who are interested in working in geropsychology, and doctors, nurses and social workers who work within the aging network.