Walking up the back stairs of the nursing home, I heard someone yelling and cursing loudly. I pressed the red button releasing the door lock and came onto the third-floor unit. The fire of her fury had burnt out rapidly, and a 32-year-old young woman—I’ll call her Gwen—now sat hunched and sobbing in the nook at the end of the hallway. I thought if I spoke or approached too closely she would dismiss me, so I sat quietly 10 feet away on the broad windowsill. Her breathing slowe

Sakura was born in 1931, in the Japanese city of Nagasaki, a major port city and centre for ship building. She enjoyed a pleasant childhood with many friends and family. The early years of her adolescence were overshadowed, though, by the increasingly grim circumstances of her country being at war. On August 9, 1945, the day seemed ordinary for the 14-year-old Sakura, until in a flash, nothing ordinary remained, after an atomic bomb was dropped on her city by the U.S., and 60

“I call them the persons of my mind, my pers,” Robin said, in reference to the split personalities she experiences due to trauma. “I talk out loud to them and I find it therapeutic, but I try to be careful because I know it can bother my roommate, and other people,” she said. Robin suffered severe and serial traumas, and was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and associated psychotic symptoms (voice-hearing and delusions). She currently resides in a nursing home,

(‘Alex’ gave permission for this brief sharing of his story; ‘TJ’ said not a word.) Alex is a tall, thin, 86-year-old former psychotherapist now living in a nursing home, and walking with a walker. He experiences mild anxiety and depression associated with adjustment to stage of life development, and he experiences mild cognitive issues. I meet with him for life review therapy. Alex loves music and theater, and he wrote and performed in plays, in addition to practicing and te

Originally published with psychotherapy.net. A frustrated and depressed nursing home resident recently described the facility as “a place where unwanted elders can be exiled.” Through our therapy conversation in that session, he came to acknowledge that he did have problems with his memory and his health, and that his facility residence was reasonable — even though unwanted — and was not a rejection by his son. “I know he’s only doing what he thinks is right for me.” The Em

I was invited to speak with Travis Heath, host of Therapist Confidential to discuss my career of 43 years spent providing psychotherapy in nursing homes. We explore how these settings have changed, why they’re “very lively, even though they’re often dealing with death,” and what it means to do meaningful therapy with older adults and medically complex younger adults. Filled with vivid stories and nuanced reflections on loss, hope, communication, and meaning, this conversati