The ageless soul and counselling : the lived experience of functional elderly adults

Abstract

This study aimed at exploring the lived experience of old age of functional elderly adults, as well as their perceptions of counselling practice. An aggregate of 13 semi-structured interviews were held with six older adults. The data was then analyzed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach. A total of five super-ordinate themes emerged from the analysis of the data, specifically: existential anxieties; adjusting and adapting to changes; perception of old age; coping processes; and views of counselling. The findings suggest that although ageing is an individual process, functionality, activity and involvement feature prominently in the lives of the individuals. Counselling services are perceived to be a potential haven of support for elderly individuals. Database used for this work included, JSTOR, EBSCO, PsychINFO, SpringerLink, PubMed. Word count of chapters including quotes: 26,177