AARP Love and Meaning after 50: The 10 Challenges to Great Relationships-and How to Overcome Them

by Julia L. Mayer PsyD, Barry J. Jacobs PsyD

Overview

Sustain loving relationships and set yourself up for emotional wellness in your fifties, sixties, and beyond with this valuable collection of advice from two psychology experts.


"Drs. Mayer and Jacobs use their clinical wisdom and story-telling abilities to bring to life the challenges for couples as they age. Their advice will help strengthen long-term relationships to combat the rising trend of Gray Divorce."
—Janis Abrahms Spring, PhD, author of After the Affair and Life with Pop


With couples divorcing at higher rates than any generation before, and longer lifespans leaving people unwilling to settle for an unsatisfying partner, it's more important than ever to refocus and strengthen your relationship. The only question is: how?


In AARP Love and Meaning after 50, husband-wife psychologist team Julia Mayer and Barry Jacobs — with 50+ years of experience between them — identify the 10 most common challenges to sustain loving relationships:


The Empty Nest * Extended Family * Finances * Infidelity
Retirement * Downsizing and Relocating * Sex
Health Concerns * Caregiving * Loss of Loved Ones


AARP Love and Meaning after 50 offers insights and anecdotes, do it yourself assessments and follow-up exercises, and tips for connecting through the difficult times. With this book, you'll find deeper meaning and greater satisfaction for the decades ahead—together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738286181
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,099,962
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Julia L. Mayer, PsyD is a clinical psychologist, and has been doing individual and couples therapy for more than a quarter century. She has a busy full-time private practice in Media, Pennsylvania, where she specializes in women's issues, including relationship concerns, sexual abuse, eating disorders, caregiving, and aging. She has done readings and given talks at libraries, art galleries, clinical supervision groups, retirement communities, and graduate programs in clinical psychology. She also previously published an article in the APA journal, Family, Systems and Health.

Barry J. Jacobs, PsyD is a clinical psychologist, family therapist, and long-time journalist and writer. He works as the Director of Behavioral Sciences for the Crozer-Keystone Family Medicine Residency Program in Springfield, Pennsylvania, and has had adjunct faculty positions with the Temple University School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and the Department of Psychology of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University and his Doctor of Psychology degree from the Hahnemann/Widener Universities.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Tips for Talking and Listening xvii

Challenge 1 The Empty Nest 1

Challenge 2 Extended Family 19

Challenge 3 Finances 39

Challenge 4 Infidelity 59

Challenge 5 Retirement 77

Challenge 6 Downsizing and Relocating 93

Challenge 7 Sex 109

Challenge 8 Health Concerns 127

Challenge 9 Caregiving 145

Challenge 10 Loss of Loved Ones 161

When Nothing Works: Cooperative Separation and Divorce 179

Afterword: Final Thoughts 193

Acknowledgments 195

Notes 197

Index 219

About the Authors 237

Editorial Reviews

"Drs. Mayer and Jacobs use their clinical wisdom and story-telling abilities to bring to life the challenges for couples 50-plus. Their advice will help strengthen long-term relationships to combat the rising trend of Gray Divorce."—Janis Abrahms Spring, PhD, author of After the Affair and Life with Pop

"A must-read for anyone over 50 who is married or wants to be. I wish my parents had read this book when they were in their 50s! It's a practical, hopeful guide to renegotiating and reinvigorating your relationship. It will save a lot of marriages, because it will really help you and your spouse talk to each other."—Stephen Fried, New York Times bestselling author of Husbandry: Sex, Love and Dirty Laundry: Inside the Minds of Married Men and Rush: Revolution, Madness & the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father

"A beautifully written guide for couples who want inspiration, a refresher, or a reboot after the kids are gone."—William J. Doherty, Ph.D., Professor of Family Social Science, University of Minnesota, and author of Take Back Your Marriage

"Julia Mayer and Barry Jacobs have given us an eminently practical guide to maintaining connection and re-establishing intimacy for couples over 50. They provide engaging descriptions and clear step-by-step guidance to help couples forge deeper meaning and greater closeness. As the percentage of Americans over 65 continues to grow, this will become an increasingly important and relevant book for an ever-larger segment of our population."—Dr. Patricia Papernow, author of Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationships: What Works and What Doesn't, and, with Karen Bonnell, The Stepfamily Handbook: From Dating, to Getting Serious to Forming a "Blended Family"

From the Publisher