ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author presents therapeutic work carried out within a counselling service she was engaged to establish and manage for Age UK Camden. She provides therapy for older people with early to mid-stage dementia and for older people from Black and Minority Ethnic groups. The author focuses on the therapeutic work psychiatrists did with people with dementia. The three therapeutic approaches which underpinned the thinking in designing the project were attachment theory, psychodynamic theory and the person- centred approach. Delaying the progression of dementia is possible primarily through early diagnosis, medical support and related services, but also through an improved quality of life which includes therapeutic work. In the case of dementia patients the presence of a therapist trained to provide regularity, attunement and containment, effected changes in how our clients thought, felt and managed their lives. Psychoanalytic thinking, together with intuition and attunement are helpful in making sense of often incomprehensible, bizarre behaviour in such patients.
