This chapter focuses on using humanistic sandtray as a structured play therapy intervention with clients aged 9 years and older. Humanistic sandtray therapy is a type of play therapy that can be used with clients of many ages, from preadolescents to older adults. This approach to sandtray emphasizes the primacy of the therapeutic relationship and views the relationship as the curative factor in therapy. In sandtray, therapists and clients benefit from the symbolic nature of the experience because it increases safety and provides clients with a metaphorical and indirect mode of expression. The chapter illustrates the case example to help clients go deeper into their inner experiencing and awareness so that they might move in the direction of becoming a more fully functioning person. Fully functioning people are moving in the direction of increasingly trusting their inner experiencing and becoming open to a wide range of emotions.

This chapter begins with a description of multiple systematic reviews and meta analyses of problem-solving therapy (PST) interventions. The number of studies evaluating PST has increased over the past decade, so more reviews has been conducted. The chapter discusses PST for various mental and physical health problems and depression. Following this it also discusses PST in primary care and among older adults. It briefly describes PST for diabetes self-management and control; vision-impaired adults and social problem-solving therapy in school settings. The chapter describes PST as a transdiagnostic approach. It briefs the listing of PST investigations and supports the characterization of this approach as a transdiagnostic intervention. The chapter also demonstrates its flexibility of applications. Finally, it highlights certain aspects of the recent outcome literature featuring various clinical problems (e.g., health and behavioral health disorders), populations (e.g., older adults, children, ethnic minorities), and modes of delivery (e.g., telehealth).

Athletes are believed to be at greater risk for eating disorders than the general population. When examining the rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among those with or without an eating disorder, an ASD diagnosis was found to be more common among those with an eating disorder. Accurately identifying older adults who may have an eating disorder has its challenges. Eating disorders understood in the context of physical disabilities reveal not so much an issue with respect to effectively and accurately diagnosing an eating disorder but in regard to the degree that body image issues can be pronounced among those who have a physical disability. Refusing to eat or engaging in fasting for spiritual reasons was a common practice during medieval times. The difference between those who benefit from having a religious faith and those who do not may lie in the difference between religion and spirituality.

This chapter discusses clinical work with the geriatric/older adult partial hospitalization program (PHP)/intensive outpatient program (IOP) cohort, aged 65 and older and reviews the cohort’s age-related issues, which include an interplay of medical problems and dementia. It presents the younger clinician’s challenges in assuming the role of helper with this population and also reviews applications of the games of treatment planning and group therapy. Older adults decline in function and physical health and develop more and more medical conditions that are both stressors and causes of mental health symptoms. Many older adults have more and more sources of chronic pain, which diminish their quality of life throughout the day. Dementia is another medical condition connected with depression, anxiety, and psychosis that will be encountered in the older adult cohort. The clinician should respect boundaries in general by treating older adult patients as adults with self-determination.