Interesting post.
A lady on my bereavement supporter training often told the story of how she was supported initially, not long after losing her son, by a bereavement counsellor who was very young. The lady felt that this counsellor couldn’t help her as she was too young to have much life experience and so couldn’t possibly understand what she was going through.
I always felt this was a bit unfair (and also gets into what counselling is and what makes a good counsellor). Whatever age we are, we’re all going through our own things, and just because two people have gone through similar life experiences, and are at similar points in their life, doesn’t mean they’ve experienced it in the same way. Prejudices about age can be one of the things that can come between us, like any other prejudice.
Like you say, it’s always good to be aware of where these thoughts and prejudices come from. Working with young people, I’m often having to be stop myself making assumptions based on ‘how I was at that age’ type of thoughts.