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RESILIENCY AND SPIRITUALITY:

FOUNDATIONS OF STRENGTHS
PERSPECTIVE COUNSELING
WITH THE ELDERLY
a
Nieli Langer
a
College of New Rochelle, Graduate School of
Human Services, New York, New York, USA

Available online: 17 Aug 2010

To cite this article: Nieli Langer (2004): RESILIENCY AND SPIRITUALITY: FOUNDATIONS
OF STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE COUNSELING WITH THE ELDERLY, Educational
Gerontology, 30:7, 611-617

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 Educational Gerontology, 30: 611–617, 2004
Copyright # Taylor & Francis Inc.
ISSN: 0360-1277 print/1521-0472 online
DOI: 10.1080/03601270490467038

RESILIENCY AND SPIRITUALITY: FOUNDATIONS OF

STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE COUNSELING WITH THE ELDERLY

Nieli Langer
College of New Rochelle,
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Graduate School of Human Services,

New York, New York, USA

Old age is characterized as a period of resiliency when the older person uses
internal and external resources to overcome the challenges presented by this stage
of life. By acknowledging older adults’ resiliency and spiritual resources in light of
past and present risk factors, care providers can focus on capabilities, assets, and
positive attributes rather than problems and pathologies. This paper presents a
conceptual and practical framework for teaching strengths perspective counseling
for older clients in which resiliency and spirituality best describe the application
or operationalization of strengths.

Old age is a challenging period in people’s lives that often include

sudden and multiple losses and unforeseen physical, emotional, social,
and spiritual assaults to their person. Conventional gerontological
assessments collect deficit-focused data such as an older person’s
dependencies, disabilities, risk factors for nursing home placement,
available informal support, and so forth. Assessments within the
traditional medical model fail to provide a language with which to
discuss client strengths, a conceptual framework within which to build
strengths, or tools for evaluating the outcomes of interventions
intended to promote strengths. The administration of these inven-
tories is time consuming for both practitioners and clients. For
example, completion of the Resident Assessment Instrument takes five

Address correspondence to Nieli Langer, 160 W. 66th Street, Apt. 39D, New York,
NY 10023. E-mail: nielilanger@hotmail.com

611
 612 N. Langer

days and repetition occurs, in part, every 92 days (Health Care

Financing Administration, 1998). Mandated assessments may provide
valuable information, yet the process for gathering data often takes
precedence over understanding the needs of the assessed person
(Kivnick & Murray, 2001). Human beings, who happen to be old, often
get lost in the process of assessment, diagnosis, and service brokering.
If our concern as care providers is to enable an older person to remain
‘‘independent’’ or ‘‘in the community’’ for as long as possible, we must
tap into the personal values and lifelong commitments that guide the
way that person uses his or her time, solves problems, and ultimately
lives out his or her remaining years.
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Wagnild and Young (1990) has identified five themes that describe
the experience of successful adjustment to aging. These themes pro-
vide the foundation for their definition of resiliency: the ability to
restore balance following a difficult experience and integrate it into
the backdrop of one’s total life experiences. Equanimity provides a
balanced perspective of people’s lives and experiences, that is, their
joys and losses in life. Having equanimity connotes the ability to
consider a broader range of experience, thus modulating extreme
responses to adversity. The act of persistence despite adversity or
discouragement refers to perseverance. Many older people refer to a
survival instinct, a drive to keep going. Perseverance relates to a
willingness to continue the struggle to reconstruct one’s life and
therefore, remain engaged in the business of life. Self-reliance is a
belief in oneself and one’s capabilities. Very often self-reliance emerges
after a person is challenged (e.g., through widowhood) to find resour-
ces within themselves to manage daily life. Having met this challenge,
the person has become more self-reliant and confident to resume his or
her altered life. People who exhibit resiliency realize the concept of
existential aloneness: Some of our experiences are shared while others
are faced alone. People recognize the continuity of self through chan-
ging times and revel in their uniqueness. An important aspect of
adjustment to aging and loss is the ability to derive meaning from
experiences and the realization that life has a purpose, mean-
ingfulness. When people are capable of transforming negative events
into opportunities, the result is personal growth and life satisfaction.
Sustained well-being and coping has become one of the cornerstones
of aging research that has yet to be fully understood, but clearly,
spirituality (meaningfulness) appears to play an integral part in this
explanatory process of resiliency. Baltes and Baltes (1990) have
maintained that even when signs of frailty become pronounced, aging
adults are capable of making the necessary modification in goals and
aspirations. When individuals continue to develop through their life
 Resiliency and Spirituality 613

experiences and find sources of meaning therein, such as spirituality,

they are more empowered to cope with life’s stresses and survive.
Victor Frankl, in his book Man’s Search for Meaning (1963),
maintains that the will to meaning is the elemental driving force in
the human personality. The way we accept our fate may add a deeper
meaning to our lives. Frankl argues that we always have the freedom
to find meaning through meaningful attitudes even in apparently
meaningless situations. Frankl cites an incident in which an elderly
man sought him out because he was severely depressed due to the
death of his beloved wife. The older client was helped by the following
conversation with Dr. Frankl.
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Frankl asked, ‘‘What would have happened if you had died first, and your
wife would have had to survive you?’’ ‘‘Oh,’’ replied the patient, ‘‘for her
this would have been terrible and she would have suffered.’’ Frankl
continued . . . ‘‘You see that this suffering has been spared her; and it is
you who have spared her this suffering.’’ The man said no word but shook
Frankl’s hand and calmly left his office, obviously at peace. (p. 104, 171)

Frankl explains that suffering may be transmuted into meaning, such

as the meaning of a sacrifice. For Frankl, ultimate meaning exists and
is unique to each person and each situation. Each moment offers a
sequence of unrepeatable situations, each of which offers a specific
meaning to be recognized and fulfilled. The ability of individuals to
choose their attitude in any given set of circumstances is what gives
meaning and purpose to life.
Another resource that older people use to deal with adversity is
mastery. Mastery, a sense of control, can help buffer the stresses of
aging. Evidence of mastery can be drawn from one’s past experience or
from manageable areas in one’s current life. To be resilient in old age,
one needs to embrace flexibility and to accept change. In some aspects,
competence is comparable to resilience as the ability to maintain
competence despite adversity (Masten, 1994). With a client’s ability for
self-direction, counselors can enhance the client’s sense of achieve-
ment by seeking mutual solutions, pointing out strengths, and using
available resources. As Pearlin and Skaff note, ‘‘the process of adapt-
ing to late life may involve staking one’s mastery on domains over
which one can exert control and yielding it where control is now more
difficult’’ (Pearlin & Skaff, 1995, p. 115). Garmezy (1994) views resi-
liency as the skills, abilities, knowledge, and insights that accumulate
over time as the individual struggles to surmount adversity and meet
challenges.
Kobasa (1979) has hypothesized that people with the greatest
control over what occurs in their lives will remain healthier than those
 614 N. Langer

who feel powerless. Kobasa used the term hardiness to describe suc-
cessful aging that consists of a desire to remain active, the belief one
has influence over the course of life events, and the belief that change
can be a stimulus for growth. While many older people lead fulfilling
lives, others feel a loss of meaning and direction. Care providers need
to learn how older adults manage a variety of crises including changes
in health, social network, finances, and the ability to live indepen-
dently.
Spirituality and resiliency are dimensions of human life that evolve
throughout life and gain momentum in the later years. An individual’s
ability to grow and flourish despite sometimes overwhelming odds
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reflects remarkable resiliency and a spiritual anchor. Social service

and health care providers have witnessed and participated in the care
of individuals whom they believed to possess the quality of inner
strength when faced with adversity or loss. Counseling and health
promotion need to focus on maximizing a person’s desire for inde-
pendence while promoting self-reliance rather than dependency or
learned helplessness. Assessing clients’ spirituality and resiliency in
its various expressions, identifying its use, and including it in indivi-
dual counseling interventions may assist older clients to recognize
their capacity to readjust during periods of disruption and loss. They
are empowered to utilize the strengths they already possess (Langer,
2000).

STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE COUNSELING

This counseling model fits well with gerontological social work’s
interest in client empowerment. Counseling for the frail elderly that is
designed to support an older adult’s strengths has the potential to
reduce the number of elders who may later need extensive health and
social services. The strengths perspective focuses on capabilities,
assets, and positive attributes rather than problems and pathologies.
This generative model enhances clients’ resources for problem solving,
coping, and healing. It appears to add an element of control, at least
internally, that is very important to a sense of well being. An under-
standing of inner strength as it encompasses well being and self-
nurturing practices is necessary for health professionals to facilitate
and enhance the experience of health and quality of life for older
adults.
The strengths perspective model assumes that: (1) People are
responsible for, and capable of, making their own decisions, (2) People
are often able to direct their lives more than they realize; they have
some freedom to choose even if their options are restricted by
 Resiliency and Spirituality 615

environmental variables or are inherent biological or personality

predispositions, and (3) People are continuously motivated to address
their basic physiological and abstract self-actualization needs.
Resiliency is evident among older persons of different ages with
different levels of capabilities and within varied settings. The
following set of conversationally worded questions (Langer, 2000;
Ortiz & Langer, 2002) informs counselors about the symbiotic nature
of spirituality and resiliency; the concepts enrich one another as they
enrich and enable the client. There will be enough personally specific
information to develop a suitably individualized, strength-based plan
for the client. Counselors begin to see their clients not just as people
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who need service hours but also as unique individuals with rich life-
long strengths who can continue to live meaningful lives.

SPIRITUALITY=RESILIENCY PROTOCOL
1. Can you identify spiritual resources from which you gain strength
and energy to overcome some of your stresses=losses? Explain.
2. Have these resources remained the same throughout your life?
Explain.
3. How have these resources given your life meaning and=or
purpose?
4. How have these resources helped you to cope during difficult times
as you got older?
5. What activities continue to give meaning and=or purpose to your
life?
6. Do you have family or friends that you depend upon to give you
strength for living and energy to overcome some of these
stresses=losses? If so, what is it about this relationship that
gives you strength or energy?

Resiliency, often obscured by the client’s current situation, is

revealed when the counselor hears the client’s story. Experiences are a
source of strength and meaning to these participants. Their inner
strength is a dynamic process that extends throughout their lifetimes
and evolves from learning to live with loss and adversity. The coun-
selor actively listens for strengths and assets, the foundation for
empowerment. With an understanding of client issues and personal
power, there exists a foundation for change. ‘‘Restorying’’ is about
developing client stories in new directions. The new story makes
action and change possible. Stories presented in the helping session
are often negative, full of problems and difficulties. People grow from
strength, not from weakness. Positive regard and respect for the older
 616 N. Langer

client are essential for growth and adjustment. When counselors

develop with their clients a list of strengths and assets gleaned from
the spirituality=resiliency questions, they will find that their clients
can draw on them later for possible resolution of concerns and
problems.
If professionals are to provide ‘‘whole person care’’ to older adults,
they need to learn how to assess spirituality and resiliency in the lives
of frail clients. Spirituality and resiliency appear to provide a per-
spective-enhancing element with which to approach life during a
period of review and change. When providing whole person care of the
older client, it is necessary for counselors to have an understanding of
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the ‘‘lens’’ through which clients view their current and past lives. The
spirituality=resiliency assessment seeks to elicit the life themes and
coping mechanisms that have probably provided clients with their
personal compass throughout their lives. The responses may help the
provider understand their older clients’ worldviews much better and to
use this information for strengths perspective counseling. Older
clients’ responses to these questions may help the counselor determine
how these clients’ identification with sources of meaning and personal
power is their basis for self-identity. They can use the responses to
begin to determine how to provide support for progressive adjustment
of older clients in the face of current, adverse circumstances. The
counselor uses a client’s spirituality or ‘‘meaning-making’’ to enhance
and reinforce a client’s inherent resiliency (Langer, 2000; Ortiz &
Langer, 2002).
To meet the predicted services needed of a large and diverse older
adult population, counselors will need to reexamine their own atti-
tudes and the nature of agency programs. Preventive programs
designed to support an older adult’s strengths have the potential to
reduce the numbers of elders who may later need extensive mental
health services (Greene, 2000). Furthermore, rather than being reac-
tive players, older adults can be important stakeholders in designing
programs and in problem-solving activities. They can build on their
own inherent strengths, find their own solutions, and provide agencies
with much needed information about their service needs (Greene,
2000).

CONCLUSION
Although gerontological social work counselors have a commitment to
focusing on client strengths, actual practice with older clients often
ignores their strengths. When counselors focus only on client deficits,
interventions often remediate, minimize, or compensate. If the focus is
 Resiliency and Spirituality 617

on client strengths and assets, interventions maximize and expand

upon these strengths. Saleebey (1992) has captured the rationale of
the strengths perspective with the following challenge:
At the very least, the strengths perspective obligates workers to
understand that, however downtrodden or sick, individuals have sur-
vived (and in some cases even thrived). They have taken steps, sum-
moned up resources, and coped. We need to know what they have done,
how they have done it, what they have learned from doing it, what
resources (inner and outer) were available in their struggle to surmount
their troubles. People are always working on their situations, even if just
deciding to be resigned to them; as helpers we must tap into that work,
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elucidate it, find and build on its possibilities (pp. 171–172).

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