Association for Adult Development and Aging

Adultspan Newsletter Editor
Amy Zavadil
zavadila@mail.montclair.edu

Electronic submissions are preferred.

Excerpts from Fall 2009 Newsletter---

“Medicare Coverage for Counselors: The time is now”
By Gary McClain, PhD., LMHC

Chances are that over the past couple of years or
more, you’ve received email messages regarding
Medicare coverage for licensed counselors, often
accompanied by a letter that you can, in turn, pass
on to your representatives in Congress. If you
work with clients in this age group, or aspire to, or
if you just want to see counselors receive deserved
recognition as mental health professionals, you
probably agree that this legislation is long overdue.
The focus of my work is with patients
facing chronic and catastrophic illness, so
Medicare coverage is especially important to me.
However, I have been facing my own healthcare
crisis over the past two years – my elderly
mother’s failing health. She lives in an assisted
living facility three states away, requiring monthly
trips and daily phone contact to oversee her care.
Last summer I realized that she was
presenting a range of depression symptoms, and I
asked her physician to arrange for a mental health
evaluation and intervention. She was visited by a...

THE GRADUATE STUDENT CORNER by Michelle Nerish

Many current graduate programs address adult
development and aging categorically, for example,
specifying addictions or multiculturalism.
Although this method is needed, I contend that
there is more knowledge required when referring
to the adult lifespan. Educationally, we are part of
a generation that has an opportunity to counsel
adults with a myriad of issues that previously have
not existed. Those who were financially hit hard
due to recent events with the economy, those who
have experienced loss due to Katrina or 9/11, those
effected by the ever advancing world of the
internet, leaving some generations and socio
economic classes behind, and those older adults
who have to live with their children or have their
parents living with them for the first time since
young adulthood. These are just a few examples of
the ever growing issues related to adult
development. How do we best assist in their
wellness if we are not aware of the developmental
and environmental challenges they face? So, where
do we begin? Perhaps it is with each other.
As counselors, establishing common
interest bonds are important to our overall
practice. There is great need for awareness in this
matter and having a solid network will greatly
enhance the work we do individually. Therefore, I...

PRACTITIONER’S PERSPECTIVE
By Suzanne Degges-White

As I reflected on how to focus this inaugural
column, I appreciated the opportunity to stretch
my mind in new directions. Writing from the
“practitioner brain,” not just the “scientist brain,”
can open up a few brand new neural pathways and
give a few overused pathways a rest. And research
consistently shows that keeping the brain firing in
both hemispheres is important to overall physical
and emotional well-being.
A couple of years ago, I entered my first
yoga class and 90 minutes later I knew that I
would integrate the practice into my life. I’ve made
the weekly trek to this particular class ever since.
Students range in age from barely 18 to beyond 70
– the entire adult lifespan is represented among
our members. As we all arrive from our diverse
paths in life, we sit together, each in our own
personal approximation of lotus pose, and “let the
dust settle” before moving into our vinyasas.
Most evenings include a series of “brain
balancing” movements and poses. Sometimes we
start on all fours then lift our right arm straight
out from our shoulder as we lift our left leg in a
counterbalancing position. The biggest challenge is
not necessarily holding the pose; sometimes the...