No age limit to Start Therapy
Age transforms you. Your body looks and works differently. It can alter your career and family roles. Even your self-esteem might shift drastically.Midlife and later life bring loss and emancipation, but you don't have to handle them alone. A qualified therapist can aid healthy adjustment.
Reluctant? Look at the data: Nearly 15% of persons over 45 attended a therapist in 2019, before the pandemic substantially worsened isolation.
Therapy is losing its stigma as more individuals realize its importance to mental and physical health. Trusted Source research suggest that therapy works for elderly and middle-aged persons.
Therapy may transform anyone at any age, therefore this article addresses its benefits in midlife and later life. So how:
Therapy helps you handle change.
Throughout life, hormones change. When estrogen, testosterone, and other hormones drop, sleep habits change.Trusted source for muscle tone and sex life. In addition to hormone changes, injury and illness can prevent you from doing some of your favorite things.
Those are only bodily changes.
Relationships can alter drastically in midlife to later age. Caregiving for a spouse or elderly parents is possible. A quarter of 45-64-year-olds care for an older relative, according to research.
In recent decades, divorce rates have doubled among those over 50Trusted Source. Fewer women than men re-partnerTrusted Source after a "gray divorce," which may involve adjusting to life alone after many years together.
LCSW Jill Meehan supports families and people through these transitions. Meaningful transformation is achievable at any age, she believes.
“Resistance to change is not about age,” Meehan says. This is about desire. Yes, change is hard, but everyone who wants to and is determined can adapt.”
We suggests seeing a therapist during change:
Listen to your needs
explain your choices
Trust your own judgment even in new territory.
Therapy allows for identity exploration.
Major shifts like retirement can shake your identity in midlife and later life.
After retiring from professional sports, elite athletes often feel unhappy and bewildered, according to reliable sources.
A void might form when you stop doing or becoming something. Disorientation is prevalent.
“Some people lose the feeling of being relevant,” Admin says.
Even when identity loss is natural, like menopause, living in the “in-between” phase can be painful.
As you redefine yourself, therapy can guide you. It can make identity re-formation trial, error, and reflection safe.
“What I see, working with women, is that their lives have often been about taking care of others,” she explains. “When that changes, people can ask, ‘What do I want for the rest of my life?’ Therapists allow you to reassess your life and understand your possibilities.
That re-evaluation may open doors. One-fifth of the workforce is over 50Trusted Source, increased from decades ago.
Grieving can be helped by therapy.
Lost can happen at any age. The longer you live, the more likely you are to suffer a major loss. Kids grow up and leave home. Family and friends die. Your life's meaningful phases end naturally.
“As horrible as grief is, it's unavoidable,” adds Meehan. “A good therapist can help you process sorrow and regret, validate those normal feelings, and support you.”
The impulse to “process regret” is natural. In old age, many people recollect and discuss memorable incidents. Some therapies aim to help patients look back positively.
Life review or recollection therapy lets you communicate key memories of big events or times.
Studies Trusted Source indicate that this therapy, which structures the natural process of looking back, helps your current life.
Therapy allows for new connections.
Therapy, whether one-on-one, group, in-person, or online, relies on human interaction and bonding. Research Trusted Source shows that therapist-client connection improves therapy.
Focused connection is crucial as people age and become increasingly isolated.
Researchers Trusted Source have long maintained isolation goes beyond loneliness. It can also cause dementia, heart disease, and mental illness. The COVID-19 pandemic supported those conclusions.
“Therapy can keep you engaged,” says Meehan. “Your therapist can provide unbiased validation, support, and compassion.”
After a lifetime of institutional prejudice, building connections may be crucial.
Social, spiritual, and psychological support can help people of color cope with long-term discrimination, according to Trusted Source research.
Experts Trusted Source recommends creating a “connection plan” with concrete ways to keep connected and avoid isolation because social ties are so crucial to your well-being.
Finding the ideal therapist: tips
Finding a good “fit” therapist will improve your results. Keep these in mind:
Consider your ideal therapist's age. According to one study Trusted Source, women preferred an older therapist for universal life concerns but a younger one for “living in today’s world” issues. Your tastes may affect your capacity to trust and bond with your therapist, so pay attention.
Find a PST or CBT therapist. In 2018,Trusted Source found that PST and CBT help older persons with depression, especially those with chronic illness.
Consider practicality. Medicare, Medicaid, or insurance-covered therapists are likely to be cheaper.
Consider internet therapy. Online treatment may seem less personal to some. Others may avoid technology due to its difficulties. Though it may take some getting used to, studies Trusted Source suggest that many older folks would rather talk to an internet therapist than a family member. Online treatment helped many feel less alone.
Takeaway
Therapy has strong, evidence-based benefits for midlife to later life. A culturally sensitive, well-trained therapist can help you adjust to a changing body, divorce, empty nest, retirement, emotional loss, or other life transitions.
Therapy can also refresh your identity and contributions to the world. It can strengthen your social connections, preventing isolation. It can help you reflect on your past, present, and future goals.