Are you widowed, divorced or never married and feeling very lonely in your retirement years? Has your marriage changed in retirement as you spend an increasing amount of time together and don’t agree on how to spend your time or money or on who does the dishes?Are health or money issues creating stress?

Retirement and aging bring unique issues to our lives. After many years of working or raising a family, the long, unscheduled hours of retirement can be unexpectedly lonely and depressing. Spending more time with a spouse can bring up issues in the relationship that you were able to avoid during working years when you spent less time together. 

Spouses who didn’t talk about their retirement plans in advance may be surprised that their spouse has very different ideas about how to spend time and money during this stage in life. 

Dealing with serious health issues or living on a fixed income are other concerns that may arise during senior years. 

Individual counseling during retirement years is often a combination of clarifying what you want in your life and finding resources, both within yourself and out in the community, to meet your needs.

Couples counseling during retirement years can involve learning to communicate about such issues as activities of daily life, physical intimacy, dealing with grown children, or fears of aging. It can bring you close again or create the close and playful relationship you always hoped.