The Other Side of the Mountain

Reviews the book, Psychotherapy with older men by Tammi Vacha–Haase, Stephen R. Wester, and Heidi Fowell Christianson (see record 2010-09098-000). The authors delineate a broad-based work of practical use, without turning it into a geriatric text. In other words, despite its scientific and psychotherapeutic focus, it maintains the human connectedness and focuses on the experiential aspects of what it is or may be like to be an aging man in the United States. The authors build upon current scientific knowledge from various fields to pull together a mosaic of men and the multiple changes they face as they age. In addition, the authors describe the challenges that therapists face as they attempt to understand and assist men going through such dramatic experiences. The book is not a therapeutic outline and should not be construed as a handbook to determine treatment progression. Rather, it outlines the challenges and provides possibilities that readers might use and explore as they interact with older men. Psychotherapy with older men is a worthwhile addition to any professional therapist’s library. It outlines pertinent clinical areas for treatment, provides reminders of the complexities of aging, and indicates areas of intervention that can guide treatment across a wide variety of difficulties. It provides a scientific and scholarly summary, yet also maintains the human experiential side of men’s aging issues and the complex factors that collide as older men seek psychotherapy. It is not a paint-by-numbers picture of older men in psychotherapy, but it does help illustrate the experience of climbing down the aging side of the mountain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)