What changes when we stop approaching aging as decline-and begin recognizing our later years as a time of continued growth, meaning, human connection, and eldership?
GeroWellness Trainee and Internship Program offers a thoughtful foundation for therapists, trainees, carepartners, and others who accompany elders. Drawing on existential-humanistic psychology and process-oriented practice, Dr. Nader R. Shabahangi presents an approach to eldercare grounded not in fixing another person, but in presence, relationship, curiosity, and respect.
At the heart of the book is the practice of radical presence: slowing down, making room for silence, and embracing "not knowing" as a way of meeting another person more fully. This orientation becomes especially meaningful in what Shabahangi calls "forgetfulness care," where conventional assumptions about dementia can give way to deeper attention to the person, the relationship, and what may still be communicated beyond familiar forms of memory and language.
Through trainee experiences, reflective insights, practical exercises, and invitations to examine one's own assumptions, readers are encouraged to reconsider the roles of both elder and carepartner. Elders emerge not simply as recipients of care, but as potential teachers and mentors; carepartners are invited to witness, serve, learn, and grow alongside them.
Designed especially for students and practitioners in psychology, gerontology, caregiving, and eldercare communities, GeroWellness Trainee and Internship Program offers a compassionate framework for revisioning aging, therapeutic practice, and the possibilities of genuine human encounter.