Kay Paggi, Licensed Professional Counselor 
National Certified Gerontological Counselor, Care Manager, Certified 
     Phone 972-839-0065              E-Mail: kay@kaypaggi.com

Sometimes a private session or two with a counselor who understands the unique challenges of aging and caregiving is helpful.

-One-to-one visits may help you clarify your options and plan a course of action.  Caregivers benefit from a little TLC with a professional who has experienced the grief and guilt of caregiving.  Providing care for a frail parent can be heartbreaking. The choices you must make affect your job, your children, your friends, and your finances.  I hope to assist you as your prioritize the issues and make decisions you can live with comfortably for the rest of your life.

-Family sessions are useful as family members negotiate caregiving arrangements or create new roles.  Adult children and a parent may find it useful to discuss providing care for the other parent/spouse. Siblings may want to discuss options and divide responsibilities with a neutral professional.

-Parent/child sessions may help bring old issues out where they can be discussed and perhaps resolved.  Care-receivers and their Adult Children benefit from discussing their frustrations in a neutral setting, and exploring their options together.

-Crisis counseling may help you solve an immediate problem, such as placement following a hospitalization. 

-Seasoned adults may wish to discuss planning for future changes, coping with grief, or adjusting to unwanted changes.

       Several sessions may be helpful during a transition or relocation, as you adjust to the new situation and develop new coping strategies.  Sessions are $85/hr.
 

     WHAT A LADY!!!! 
     The 92-year-old, petite, well poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. 
     After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. 

"I love it," she stated. 
        "Mrs. Jones, you haven't seen the room ... just wait." 

  "That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged ... it's how I  arrange my mind. I already decided to love it." 

  "It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away ...just for this time  in my life. Old age is like a bank account ... you withdraw from what  you've put in. ...So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of  happiness in the bank account of memories." 
 

   Phone  972-839-0065     Fax: 972-907-3799
E-Mail: kay@kaypaggi.com