Photo by SR. Would you like to be called a “Perennial?” Images of flowers come to mind. No, not for me. Nonetheless, Clare Ansberry is onto something. Her recent Wall Street Journal article “Forget ‘Senior Citizen’—Aging Baby Boomers Search for a Better Term” reports how many baby boomers don't want to identify with unflattering labels. Like it or not, [...]

When I was a practicing psychotherapist, my clients spoke about their sex lives, while avoiding talking about money. Perhaps they were concerned that I’d raise their fee (but never — that’s unethical)! Most people would rather speak about almost anything but money. It strikes me that there are many women at an Expressive Age (50 to 75) who avoid understanding [...]

Several months ago, my friend and colleague Loretta Donovan invited me to co-author a special issue of the International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry. Appreciative Inquiry is a change management approach, focusing on identifying what is working well, analyzing why it is working well and then doing more of it. I said “yes” to her invitation and the process of co-editing [...]

Today, I am wondering why it takes some people a long time to take action to engage in new activities in self-expression. I’ve seen it with mid-career changers. I’ve seen it in friends who struggle with giving up things they clearly no longer need. (As they say, if it doesn’t give you joy, throw it out)! Maybe it’s the change [...]

You hear “What’s in a name?” and you probably think “Shakespeare.” Well, there is a lot in a name and in a world of both personal and corporate brands, it is about identity. Frustrated, if not insulted, by the stereotypes of senior, elder, AARP (as in retired person), baby boomer, I decided to re-brand that identity. I now call myself [...]

Admittedly, I didn't know what “hypocognition” meant until reading Unknown Unknowns: The Problem of Hypocognition.  Even though I am trained as a psychologist, the word hasn't come across my radar. Oops! Kaidi Wu and David Dunning write about hypocognition as “the lack of a cognitive or linguistic representation for an object, category, or idea.” We often don’t have a way [...]

Would you like to be called a “Perennial?” Images of flowers come to mind. No, not for me. Nonetheless, Clare Ansberry is onto something. Her recent Wall Street Journal article “Forget ‘Senior Citizen’ — Aging Baby Boomers Search for a Better Term” is spot on. Clearly, I am not alone in my quest to find a better term. So here's my [...]