WHEN ONE HAS BEEN IN THE COUNSELING PROFESSION as long as I have, it becomes difficult to determine whom to acknowledge for the ideas, insights, and factual experiences that have combined to form the content of this book. In general terms, however, I would be remiss were I not to mention Dr. Daniel J. Levinson, author of The Seasons of a Man’s Life, and until his death in 1994, professor of psychology at Yale University. I had the good fortune many years ago to attend a workshop that he conducted while he was in the process of putting the results of his years of research into the final product of his ground-breaking book on the stages of adult development. I was able to correspond personally with Dr. Levinson for his input in a paper I was preparing for an individualized graduate school course on the subject of adult development. Dr. Levinson’s work was a key inspiration in my decision to concentrate on adult development as the focus for my work in counseling.
In that regard also, I want to acknowledge Dr. Nancy Schlossberg, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, both for the many top-notch professional seminars she hosted with luminaries in the adult psychology field while she was at the University of Maryland and for her significant personal contributions in her many publications. I recall vividly a professional seminar when Dr. Schlossberg debated Dr. Levinson about his concepts of predictable stages in adult development. Like so many others in the counseling profession, I have benefited immensely from the vast contributions that Dr. Schlossberg has made and continues to make in the study of adult psychology and life transition management.
I must also acknowledge my friend and colleague Dr. Frederic Hudson, both for his publications that have made significant professional contributions to the field of adult development (see the reference section of the book) and for the contributions he provided to so many through his Life Launch course and coach training program at the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara, California. I have personally experienced Dr. Hudson’s courses, even going to one with my wife, Pat, some 18 years ago. In my mind, Dr. Hudson is a towering figure in the field of adult development and personal growth. I have learned much from him over the years of our professional friendship and consider him to be both a mentor and a role model for adult development.
Although I did not have the privilege of personally studying with Erik Erikson, his work in identity formation and the stages of psychosocial development are such a part of the knowledge base in adult development that it’s hard to know for what specific content of this book to acknowledge him. Instead, I feel it important to recognize his work in general terms for breakthrough insights in understanding the psychology of adult behavior and development through the ages and stages of the lifespan.
In more specific terms, for their contributions in the development of this book, I want to thank my colleagues at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. The assistance they provided enabled me to develop the course that has served as a primary conceptual and experiential basis for this book. I want also to thank my many colleagues in the counseling field for their interest and their input, suggestions, ideas, feedback, and the knowledge they have shared with me in the development of this project. In that regard, I especially want to acknowledge Dr. Arthur LaSalle, Dr. Elizabeth Lopez Murgatroyd, and Dr. Stephanie Kaye for their professional expertise and support over the years in helping to make this project a reality.
I must also acknowledge the hundreds of individuals in the fifty-plus stage of life who have participated in the workshops I’ve conducted and been my clients in individual counseling sessions over the past decades. Working with these individuals has been and is an ongoing learning experience. Their stories fill the pages of this book and bring life experience, reality, and the unique personal touch to its content. I have, or course, not used the real names of individuals, except where noted, and in some cases altered some details in order to protect the confidentiality of my clients.
I most especially want to acknowledge my wife, Pat Donohoe, for her direct support and assistance in ways too numerous to determine. She has been a constant source of ideas, reality testing, and intellectual input in this project from its inception some seven years ago to final manuscript. She has sat in on presentations and workshops I’ve delivered on the subject and provided encouragement and insightful feedback, both positive and negative. She has also been the book’s chief copy editor and my writing coach. In both of these capacities, her background and expertise as a former English teacher, magazine editor, and college public relations director, along with her own well-developed writing talents, have enriched and deepened the book, not to mention the process of writing it—a process, I might add, that also enriched and deepened our own relationship. As an ordained Presbyterian minister, Pat has also helped me to explore and emphasize the significance of the spiritual dimension to life in our senior years.
For all of these many gifts, I am truly thankful.