Therapists for elderly adults?

[Anonymous]

I am helping to search for therapists in or near Arlington who are currently accepting new patients for elderly adults. They prefer to not work with young counselors and those who accept Medicare are best, but they can privately pay if needed too. I'm looking for my mom and dad.

Any recommendations? I'm searching psychology today, but I'm not familiar with therapists in Arlington.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

It's going to be extremely difficult, possibly impossible to find someone who takes Medicare who has openings and if I recall medicare does not reimburse at all or not well for out of pocket. Usually on Psychology today they say the age ranges seen.

The person searching must do the searching her or himself and do the calls. I went through this with a parent and therapists are incredibly wary when someone else does the calling. One was willing to explain. When someone is motivated to do the "work" of therapy they make the effort. Too often the person who won't make the calls also doesn't stick with the process and may not even respect the field.

If the person is severely depressed or too anxious to even make the calls, it may be best to get a psychiatric evaluation first. In our case, ant-anxiety medication was the only thing that made mom receptive to therapy (and able to benefit). She kept taking herself off and would fire her therapist and spiral downward.