Geropsychology Commons^™

Attachment And Older Adults In Psychotherapy: A Latent Profile Analysis Of Psychological Distress Across Treatment, Brian Michael Stran

Dissertations

Older adults have been largely underrepresented within the psychotherapy literature. Given the unique social and emotional changes associated with older age (Carstensen et al., 1999) and the perceived gap in training that trainees report in working with older adults (Woodhead et al., 2015), there is a pressing need for research that can aid mental health practitioners in the conceptualization, treatment planning, and treatment of their older adult clients.

In the first part of this manuscript, an integrated theoretical model, consisting of socioemotional selectivity theory (SEST; Carstensen et al., 1999) and attachment theory (Bowlby 1969), was developed to provide psychotherapists with …