Provide examples of specific counselor characteristics and/or skills that would make the counselor more effective when working with older adults. Explain why you selected these characteristics.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In order to work well with older adults, the counselor should have certain personal qualities. The primary characteristic, of course, is that the counselor must have a capacity for fondness toward older adults and must be able to see them as having capabilities and strengths, while still being able to see each individual objectively. Counselors need to come to terms with their own feelings and to take constructive action on their own personal issues of aging if they are committed to help elderly clients. Younger upcoming counselors, who lack this advantage, can learn a great deal by listening to and observing older clients and practitioners, by looking critically at their own biases and stereotypes, and, when necessary, by seeking professional consultation. Counselors who choose to work in this field understand that the knowledge base and the actual practice of gerontological counseling is constantly expanding and changing. Learning more about life review, the continuity theory of normal aging, behavior modification, and group therapy, for instance, can help to modify and expand the counseling approach to fit the needs of each client. As we learn more about medical advances, or nutrition, or physical activity and the impact on aging, we can be more helpful as well. Emphasizing what kind of person the counselor should be and what kinds of basic knowledge are needed is in the long run more significant than applying any one theoretical treatment approach to day-by-day practice. This will also contribute positively to the counselor’s own identity as a professional in a field that cares for all populations.