This book provides a practical guide to crisis intervention. It emphasizes the role of violence, patient suicide, long-term sequelae of trauma, clinical assessment and risk management, professional boundaries and burn-out, and the neurophysiology of trauma, as well as the needs of underserved patient populations including minority group members, older adults, gays and lesbians, and children. It features critical reviews of controversial topics, including EMDR, critical incident stress debriefing, recovered memories, dissociative identity disorder, and alternative medicine.

Throughout my clinical training and practice, I have been surprised by the number of times that sexual issues have emerged as an unexpectedly central feature in my work with older adults. I can vividly remember my own internal reaction on hearing one of my elderly female patients tell me that she was date raped a few years after the death of her elderly husband-when she was 68 years old. I can see in my mind's eye the blood splattered on the floor of an inpatient unit from an elderly man who smashed his arm through a window, furious that his antidepressant medication made it impossible to climax through masturbation. On a much less dramatic but equally important note, I think about the elderly amputee who told me softly about his fears of resuming sexual activity with his wife of 25 years. I also think about the elderly woman whose inability to take herself shopping to find fashionable, comfortable clothes to fit over her hunched shoulders and large breasts helped precipitate a serious depression. In sum, I learned early on that elderly sexuality is not just about how many times a week someone makes love. It is my hope that sharing these experiences and introducing the related theories, research, and interventions will assist other clinicians in dealing with these often challenging and clinically demanding situations. Without my patients, this text would not have been possible.

This book provides a practical guide to crisis intervention. It emphasizes the role of violence, patient suicide, long-term sequelae of trauma, clinical assessment and risk management, professional boundaries and burn-out, and the neurophysiology of trauma, as well as the needs of underserved patient populations including minority group members, older adults, gays and lesbians, and children. It features critical reviews of controversial topics, including EMDR, critical incident stress debriefing, recovered memories, dissociative identity disorder, and alternative medicine.

Throughout my clinical training and practice, I have been surprised by the number of times that sexual issues have emerged as an unexpectedly central feature in my work with older adults. I can vividly remember my own internal reaction on hearing one of my elderly female patients tell me that she was date raped a few years after the death of her elderly husband-when she was 68 years old. I can see in my mind's eye the blood splattered on the floor of an inpatient unit from an elderly man who smashed his arm through a window, furious that his antidepressant medication made it impossible to climax through masturbation. On a much less dramatic but equally important note, I think about the elderly amputee who told me softly about his fears of resuming sexual activity with his wife of 25 years. I also think about the elderly woman whose inability to take herself shopping to find fashionable, comfortable clothes to fit over her hunched shoulders and large breasts helped precipitate a serious depression. In sum, I learned early on that elderly sexuality is not just about how many times a week someone makes love. It is my hope that sharing these experiences and introducing the related theories, research, and interventions will assist other clinicians in dealing with these often challenging and clinically demanding situations. Without my patients, this text would not have been possible.

Poetry is often the expression of love, of angst, of splendor, of the divine wisdom. Like the separation between self and spirit, source, the universe, it is only the limitation of the mind that end or begins with each breathe of reflection. We all are one. Words of the Heart is the continuing journey through Jennifer Hillman's poetry as she lives and becomes more aware of the values of the lessons she learns along the way. Her connection with the Divine is through the expression of relationships, near and far. The mysteries of life are only deepens and add more curious questions with each interactions with the soul mates on her journey. The lines blur the more open she becomes and embraces her creations and experiences.