People We Serve • 185et al., 1989) and two other art therapists published a guide to drawing and writing for older
adults (Rugh & Ringold, 1989; cf. also Fausek, 1997).
About 10 years before Ben helped me to acknowledge my own aging process, I worked
with a woman in her early sixties. The psychiatrist who had referred her expressed the then-
common concern that a person her age might not be flexible enough to change in psycho-
therapy, but that it was worth a try. It turned out to be surprisingly successful. While I was
finishing this revision, almost 20 years after our work together, I ran into her at a play, and
she introduced me to her husband as “the woman who helped me so much in therapy.” Now
Figure 8.15 An elderly woman painting in a nursing home.
Figure 8.16 An older man painting in a hospital.