Wholistic applications of counselling with the aging in dialogue with pastoral care concerns: A postmodern and transcendental analysis, Ebook by Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers

Dr Joseph R Bowers 19 May 2017

Exploring notions of aging during the early years of increasing awareness of population trends gave rise to many research and professional initiatives. Twenty+ years into this mix, this ebook reflects on the trends and philosophic issues by reminding us of the human element – the pastoral, personal, and familial element.

Timely and effective for today as much as then, this ebook arose from a keynote address at a Canadian Conference in Windsor Ontario during the spring of 2005. Thank you to Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers for making this resource available again under such an accessible format and for a good cause. Proceeds go to support a community therapy fund for those in need.

Wholistic applications of counselling with the aging in dialogue with pastoral care concerns: A postmodern and transcendental analysis

Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers

ISBN 978-1-925034-02-8

Studies indicate that the influence of institutionalised religion is waning in most Western nations. In contrast, personal, spiritual, and subjective approaches to faith are on the rise. The latter may or may not relate to traditional Christian frameworks. These trends are most apparent with the aging ‘baby boomer’ population, thus changing notions of pastoral care in many countries. Counselling, as a secular and scientific modality, is well placed to meet the needs of a highly educated and articulate aging population whose values are, in many ways, representative of ‘post-Christian’ and ‘post-colonial’ worldviews. Exploring the applications of counselling in dialogue with pastoral care for the aging is a new area for practice and research. This paper explores these issues in light of a wholistic model of counselling that honours how meaning and spirituality are constructed in everyday life through personal and social experiences. This is accomplished through analysis of the social construction of aging via discursive techniques of difference, also admitting the post-secular. Issues of meaning are highlighted that place aging, counselling, and pastoral care into wider social and historical contexts. Deconstructing aging in the postmodern includes articulation of a postmodern transcendental method in critical social analysis, including acknowledgement of theological and philosophical issues. The discussion concludes with suggesting a queer critical social analysis to assist in understanding the politics of aging.

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