We all need someone to compassionately care about our well being and be there for us.

We need to have a place to review current concerns, life issues and be listened to expertly. We all need support!

You see, as a person over age 50 myself, I am keenly aware that the need for me to oversee the needs of my children and family is diminishing, leaving me untethered to reflect and connect with those that I care about. This is an essential part of living a meaningful life.

As seniors, many of us have lost our parents, or our parent’s capacity to be the caregiver has diminished and reversed. Our children are presumably living their own adult lives. We now find ourselves needing connection and interdependence, and a therapist is well positioned to listen, support, and encourage growth and development in this new stage of our lives.

It is a time for deeper understanding and acceptance of ourselves and where our lives have taken us so far. We might want to rethink the tapestry of our childhood narrative now from a newer and wiser perspective.

As it was once wisely said ‘it’s never too late to have a happy childhood’.  Therapists are trained in helping gain a broader perspective of our experiences and retell the story that we have told ourselves in a habitual way so far. It is also a time to carefully plan and execute new endeavors and relationships.  A good therapist can help with all these needs.

Our ‘senior’ years can now be as long as 30-40 years and requires attention and focus to construct our lifestyle to match our desires.

A good therapist can:

Help us give ourselves permission to feel things as they happen. We can allow ourselves to grieve, be sad and then let go of the things that we don’t have control over (e.g., honour the uncertainty that you may be feeling).

• Help us see ourselves in positive terms.
• Diminish our own negative anxieties and depressive notions about aging.
• Help us grow into the person that we want to be—it’s our time! Create a new identity shift.
• Develop new visions of how we view retirement.
• Be an emotionally fit parent, partner, and friend.
• Make deliberate positive decisions to take ownership of our own lives in this stage.

People don’t stop growing when they become old, they become old when they stop growing.

Find a good therapist to help you with all of this! We have more power over our physical and mental health than we ever believed.