Other Approaches to Therapy

Abstract

This chapter represents a pot pourri of techniques, ideas, frames of reference and “therapies,” each of which, in and of itself, has not been sufficiently dealt with by the gerontological research community to warrant treatment in a separate chapter. This is not to imply that these treatment techniques are not widely applied if we consider all therapies currently employed with older adults. Large numbers of institutions caring for the mentally ill aged devote many staff-hours to remotivation therapy. Many group therapists may use a psychodynamic frame of reference in their treatment of older clients. However, relatively little research presently exists with respect to the application of these therapeutic techniques to older adults. Many of the articles and reports which can be found in the literature are think pieces, program descriptions, case studies, or recommendations based on a subjective evaluation on the part of the practitioner. Thus, the research clinical psychologist, with the specialized skills which training in clinical psychology produces, may find this chapter a veritable goldmine of intriguing hypotheses; on the other hand, relatively little in the way of “facts,” or even substantiated theory, will be apparent.