The essential purpose of this book is to provide practitioners and students of the human service professions with a practice approach and methodology that has been developed over the past ten years in both research and clinical work with older persons. It is concerned with the kinds of emotional prob lems that are salient and pervasive in the second half of life, that is, from about the ages of 50 on into the 60s, 70s, and 80s. These problems are often related to inevitable developmental and situational events and losses, as well as the decrements and concerns that are prevalent in the latter decades of life: physical decline and illness, loss of loved ones, concerns about one's own mortality, loss of major occupational and family roles, and the issues of meaning in and about one's life which are raised by these losses and concerns. The approach to these problems will include a range of assessment and treatment methods for counseling and psychotherapy. It will, however, em phasize two particular kinds of methods for dealing with these problems. The first of these, cognitive methods, tend to focus on how older persons think about or construe these problems whereas phenomenological methods focus on how persons experience or feel about them. What is common to both is that they are oriented toward the person's perception of the prob lem."

Within the last several years, the issue of quantitative vs. qualitative research methods has become an important and controversial subject of debate within the field of social work. While traditional quantitative studies have predominated in social work research, many scholars and practitioners in the field believe that qualitative studies better capture the context, complexity and change processes inherent in social work practice. In this, the first book of its kind, Sherman and Reid assemble papers from leading scholars of the social work profession, academic, and professional, presenting the debate in all its fascinating complexity. The book is organized into five parts: Qualitative Methods in Contemporary Social Work, Qualitative Approaches to Evaluation, Issues and Exemplars of Qualitative Research, Integration of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, and the final part dealing with epistemological issues concerning the nature, scope, and reliability of claims to knowledge building and testing in social work.

In modern societies people are expected to remain "activity-oriented" in their later years, rather than change to a more contemplative, spiritual, and peaceful way of living. The latter, however, is ideally-suited to people in later life and offers many healthful benefits. Dr. Sherman explains why this is so in Contemplative Aging--a book that shows the way to add a different and deeper dimension to the activity-oriented image of older age promoted in the media, and how to transcend the many physical decrements and emotional losses of loved ones in later life.
Extensive research evidence exists for achieving such a way life--called "gerotranscendence"--which is clearly described in Contemplative Aging along with the psychological and philosophical foundations and practices that can lead to the existential and spiritual benefits of gerotranscendence.
Based on the author's ongoing work with older adults and the timeless literature on contemplative traditions around the world--expressed by poets, psychologists, philosophers, mystics, and rationalists--Dr. Sherman presents a range of contemplative practice methods and exercises designed for those already sixty years or older and the millions of "baby boomers" about to enter their later years of life.