Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

`This is a warm, compassionate, wise book, the crystallization of Anne Orbach′s many years experience of psychotherapy and counselling with the elderly people. It opens up many vistas, questions and creative possibilities for work in this field′ - British Journal of Psychotherapy

` Counselling Older Clients is a handbook for practitioners, trainers and student counsellors who are interested in the experience of ageing and old age. The book offers a good beginning and a functional training tool for practitioners new to the field′ - Ageing and Society

`This book is wise for its years! Offers so much to all of us - not just those of us working with the `elderly′ There is something to delight, inform and challenge everyone′ - Quality in Ageing

`.... invaluable to those in counselling training, for carers working with the older age group and for experienced counsellors who maybe interested in working with older clients - Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal

Counselling Older Clients is a much-needed guide for practitioners working with older clients in a range of settings. Highlighting the stereotypes and prejudices which frequently exist around ageing, Ann Orbach gives practical advice on how to develop an approach to counselling which is both age-affirmative and thoroughly in tune with the needs of older clients.

The book explores the difficulties which people commonly experience as they get older and through examples, shows how client′s can be helped in areas such as:

}} adjusting to retirement

}} the loss of a partner

}} coming to terms with ageing.

Examining different methods of working with older clients, including brief and open-ended contracts and the use of stories to facilitate the therapeutic process, Counselling Older Clients is invaluable reading for counsellors and other professionals working with older people.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Age Affirmative Practice
• Counsellors, Clients and Settings
• Theory and Practice
• Time-Limited or Open-Ended
• Beginning and Ending
• Use and Value of Stories
• Obstacles to Change
• Avoidance, Resistance and Other Factors
• Working with Difference
• Relationships and Withdrawal
• Loss
• Retirement, Bereavement and Diminishment
• Facing Death
• How Do We Evaluate Counselling?
• Some Useful Exercises

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

One of the strengths of Orbach's book is that it combines theory and research with real-world experience, giving insight not found elsewhere. Case examples make the concepts more concrete. Orbach provides valuable discussion of ageism, client empowerment, spirituality, sexuality, loss, and death and how these impact on both the counseling process and counselors themselves. Especially useful are the self-exploration questions for counselors at the end of each chapter. But the book has its limitations. The chapter on theoretical approaches addresses only psychodynamic and "Rogerian" (person-centered) therapy, omitting mention of other approaches found to be effective. The chapter on diversity, though desirable, would have been more valuable had it been guest authored by someone with expertise in diversity issues; as it stands the discussion here is one-dimensional, inaccurate, culture-bound, and superficial. (Some statements simply make no sense, e.g., "Lesbians may feel they have missed out on home-making and companionship.") Also needing further development are the chapters on sexuality and on dementia. Last, the book's British perspective may not translate to an American culture. ^BSumming Up: Optional. Comprehensive collections only. B. L. Hawkins SUNY College at Fredonia

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Ann Orbach is a retired psychotherapist with twenty five years experience in private practice. She is the founder of SAGE (Senior Age) Counselling Service and continues to chair its executive committee.