Systemic Therapy with Older Adults

Family and systemic psychotherapy has been developing over seven decades but was slow to extend into the field of later life. The convergence of changing demography and evolving networks of systemic psychotherapists is blending with a cultural shift towards recognising older people’s needs and influence as this population grows. Eleanor Martin, Sophie Jeffery and Peter Ball are part of an older adult community of practice focused on linking up isolated therapists and supporting the development of older adult systemic practice across the UK. We have and continue to support several research studies and are increasing the availability of older adult systemic literature. We welcome attendees to learn about what we have been up to, found to be helpful in our own work and have learned from working in an older adult context. We are keen to hear from and collaborate with others to further develop our ideas and enable greater consideration and inclusion of older adults to occur more broadly across systemic practice and services.