My therapist is "older" but not "old old," like maybe mid 60s.
The thought has occurred to me. More about retirement than dying. But he also just moved from a group to private practice, and I doubt it would have been worth the hassle if he was planning to retire anyway.
I remind myself that it's very likely that I'll have to move elsewhere once I finish my PhD (3-4 years from now if we're being pretty optimistic). So even if I found the perfect therapist I would only have a few years with them max.
Finding a therapist I can work with and trust is rare for me. So I can't really be "picky" about other things like age (though I rule out younger therapists because of the experience factor).
I'm going to disagree with what seems to be the general consensus here, but...
If you can work equally well with many therapists and being able to see the same person for a long time is important to you (like that it would be really hard to work with anyone else once you got attached), I think it's okay to consider age as a factor.
It might help to consider your absolute requirements and then preferences. So for me, my absolute requirements are restrictive enough that a preference like age falls much lower on the list. If you don't have particularly restrictive absolute requirements and long term work is high on your list, why not factor it in?
Yes, young therapists can die. But it's a lot less likely, and it's a lot less likely that they'll retire soon.
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