Healthy Aging Psychotherapy for Individuals, Couples, and Families
Older adults seek psychotherapy for many reasons: to relieve anxiety or depression, adapt to physical changes, navigate life transitions, find renewed meaning and purpose, manage chronic pain, or cope with cognitive decline in themselves or a loved one. Common themes include negotiating dependence versus independence, reconciling self-worth with regret, and building the resilience needed to face change and loss.
Therapy—whether individual, couple, or family—often focuses on strengthening social support and relationships, resolving conflict, and clarifying evolving needs and wishes to improve quality of life. Processing age-related fears, life memories, and emotions can enhance psychological well-being and stability. Your therapist can also provide practical tools for managing emotional distress, coping with chronic illness or pain, supporting a partner or family member, and making daily-life changes that foster resilience and self-care.
Addressing End of Life
Psychotherapy for individuals facing end of life whether due to terminal illness or advanced age plays a critical role in alleviating emotional distress, fostering meaning and supporting both patients and their families through this profound transition. The experience of facing a terminal diagnosis can bring about profound distress, including anxiety, depression, anger, grief and existential questions. By enabling clients to reflect on their lives, assert their values and prepare meaningfully for death, psychotherapy becomes a powerful tool for affirming identity and dignity and bringing loved ones closer to one another through the process.
FTI has sponsored a research project called the Shared Crossing Research Initiative (SCRI) since 2013 to study end-of-life experiences and their therapeutic values for patients, their families, and loved ones and caregivers. The initial research found that participants in the Shared Crossing Project reported a wide variety of profound and healing end-of-life phenomena. For more information, contact William Peters, LMFT at www.sharedcrossing.com.