The Use of Life Review in the Treatment of Depression in Older Adults

In both of my internship opportunities through my university, I have worked with older adult clients diagnosed with chronic, recurrent depressive disorders. Up to this point, I have considered my approach with clients to be an eclectic mix of psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral therapy, with other unidentified orientations doubtless mixed in. For the purposes of this paper, I have chosen to discuss the benefits and challenges of Life Review as an effective and dynamic intervention for older adult clients with depression.

I was initially attracted to the concept of Life Review when I heard it described in terms of an autobiographical writing group for older adults. The agency that I am currently placed in offers "Life Story Workshops" for older adults-group meetings in which clients write and share pieces of their life stories, and work towards creating a larger autobiographical piece.

While I had a general understanding of the concept of Life Review before writing this paper, it was not a method that I felt familiar enough with to implement in practice with my clients. In this paper, I will discuss my future plans to implement Life Review techniques with one of my clients. I will discuss why I believe that she is a good candidate for the Life Review intervention, and which specific techniques might be most useful to her. I will make these assertions based on what I know about my client's personality, psychosocial history, and preferred treatment style.

Theoretical Foundation