of Helping Relationships With Older Adults: From Theory to Practice provides the reader with insight into assessing, diagnosing, and treatment planning, including both general interventions and specialized counseling interventions, that constitute best practice for those working with today’s older adults. The text, with its extensive use of case illustrations, is designed to not only develop the reader’s understanding of the older adult experience, but also to develop those competencies necessary for professionally engaging with the older adult client. Unique to Dr. Williams’s approach is that she not only focuses on the reader’s development of essential knowledge and skill, but also on the dispositions and attitudes essential to the effective delivery of counseling service to older adults.
As is obvious, one text, one learning experience will not be sufficient for mastery of the processes of case conceptualization, or for the successful formation of your professional identity and practice. The formation of both your professional identity and practice will be a lifelong process, a process that we hope to facilitate through the presentation of this text and the creation of our series: Counseling and Professional Identity in the 21st Century.
Counseling and Professional Identity in the 21st Century is a new, fresh, pedagogically sound series of texts targeting counselors in training. This series is not simply a compilation of isolated books matching those already in the market. Rather, each book, with its targeted knowledge and skills, will be presented as but a part of a larger whole. The focus and content of each text serves as a single lens through which a counselor can view his or her clients, engage in his or her practice, and articulate his or her own professional identity.
Counseling and Professional Identity in the 21st Century is unique not because it “packaged” a series of traditional text, but because it provides an integrated curriculum targeting the formation of the readers’ professional identity and efficient, ethical practice. Each book within the series is structured to facilitate the ongoing professional formation of the reader. The materials found within each text are organized in order to move the reader to higher levels of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor functioning, resulting in readers’ assimilation of the materials presented into both their professional identity and approach to professional practice. While each text targets a specific set of core competencies (cognates and skills) essential to the practice of counseling, each book in the series emphasizes each of the following:
1 The assimilation of concepts and constructs provided across the text found within the series, thus fostering the reader’s ongoing development as a competent professional
2 The blending of contemporary theory with current research and empirical support
3 A focus on the development of procedural knowledge with each text employing case illustrations and guided practice exercises to facilitate the reader’s ability to translate the theory and research discussed into professional decision making and application
4 The emphasis on the need for and means of demonstrating accountability
5 The fostering of the reader’s professional identity and with it the assimilation of the ethics and standards of practice guiding the counseling profession.
We are proud to have served as coeditors of this series; feeling sure that text, just like Fundamentals of Helping Relationships With Older Adults: From Theory to Practice, will serve as a significant resource to you and your development as a professional counselor.
Richard Parsons, PhD
Naijian Zhang, PhD
The Author’s Purpose
Gerontology is an exciting integration of many disciplines. Students preparing for careers in the counseling and related professions who plan to work with older adults are in need of theoretical and practical experiences to be prepared to work effectively. They need to understand the complexities of the aging process and appreciate the challenges and opportunities that the process entails. With the dramatic increase in the current older adult population and the large projected increase in the future, many opportunities will be available for students in counseling and related professions to help older adults realize their strengths and assets and empower them to manage life’s inconsistent terrain. Older adults are a very heterogeneous population, and they require helping professionals who have the knowledge, skills, and positive attitude to work effectively with their issues.
This textbook entails fundamental theoretical perspectives of the aging process and societal influences. It reinforces the strength and resiliency of this older population throughout the textbook. Common changes experienced by elders and problematic conditions are examined. The significance of the relationship of the helping professional in the therapeutic encounter is also examined. The standards and competencies required of gerontological counselors and unique attributes of the helping professional are highlighted. Various therapeutic modalities and the effectiveness for older adults are explored. Throughout the textbook, case illustrations and guided practice exercises allow the reader to experience the various issues that are challenging in the lives of older clients. Instructors can stimulate critical thinking skills and sensitize students to the uniqueness of their older clients. It is my hope that through a concerted effort, we will be able to improve and enhance the overall health of older adults because the later years are just as significant as the early and middle years of the life span. I hope that Fundamentals of Helping Relationships With Older Adults is a text that students, faculty, and helping professionals enjoy.
Adelle M. Williams, PhD
Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
Acknowledgments
A special thank you is extended to Ms. Patti Pink, who has worked tirelessly and consistently by my side in the preparation of this manuscript. I’d also like to extend my appreciation to Dr. Joan Rogers, who has been a source of inspiration during this process and throughout my professional career. A final thank you is extended for the personal assistance obtained in the manuscript preparation process.
I’d also like to thank the following reviewers:
Amy Gray-Graves, Webster University
Jeanne L. Thomas, Eastern Michigan University
Kyle H. O’Brien, Gateway Community College
Lee Slivinske, Youngstown State University
Nancy A. Orel, Bowling Green State University
Patricia Kolar, University of Pittsburgh
Polly McMahon, Spokane Falls Community College
Robert A. Jecklin, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse
Ronica N. Rooks, University of Colorado – Denver
J. Steven Fulks, Barton College
Denice Goodrich Liley, Boise State University
Geri M. Lotze, Virginia Commonwealth University
Liz Stevens, City University of Seattle
Adrienne L. Cohen, Georgia Southern University
Dianne Oakes, Excelsior College
Tim
