Life Transitions
For the Space Between Who You Were and Who You're Becoming
Life transitions don't just change your circumstances. They change who you are. The ground shifts. The identity that made sense in the previous chapter starts to feel ill-fitting, or hollow, or simply no longer true. And the person you're becoming hasn't fully arrived yet.
That space between, the place where you've left something behind and haven't yet found your footing in what's next, is one of the most disorienting places a person can inhabit. At Path of Purpose, this is exactly the territory I work in.
start with a free 15 minute consultation
Discover your path forward...your next chapter starts here
The Transitions That Bring People Here
Some transitions arrive on a schedule. Others arrive without warning. Both can leave you standing in territory that the old map doesn't cover.
Expected transitions that still destabilize: Marriage or partnership. Divorce or separation. Becoming a parent. Children leaving home. A major career change or the end of a long career. Retirement. Relocation to a new city or country. Graduation and the loss of structure that comes with it. A significant birthday that reorganizes how you see the time ahead.
Unexpected transitions: A diagnosis, your own or someone close to you. Job loss or a career that collapsed. The end of a relationship you didn't choose. A loss that reorganizes everything you thought you knew about your life. Discovering something about yourself, your identity, your history, or your desires, that changes the story you've been telling. A creative or spiritual awakening that makes the old life feel suddenly insufficient.
Whatever brought you here, the common thread is this: something has changed, and the version of you that existed before it isn't quite who you are anymore.
Why Change Is Hard Even When You Chose It
One of the most disorienting aspects of life transitions is that they can be devastating even when they're wanted. The promotion you worked toward. The relationship you chose to leave. The city you finally moved to. The creative path you finally committed to. Chosen transitions still involve grief, because every new chapter requires leaving the previous one.
The self you were in the last chapter doesn't automatically transfer. Roles, relationships, and identities that gave you structure and meaning don't always survive transition intact. What looks like success from the outside can feel like disorientation, loss, or even emptiness from the inside, and that paradox is hard to explain to people who only see the external change.
This is not a sign that you made the wrong choice. It's the natural cost of genuine change. And it's something that deserves more than a passing acknowledgement.
Working Through a Transition, Not Just Around It
The work I do with life transitions isn't about helping you adjust faster or find the silver lining. It's about understanding what this transition is asking of you at a deeper level, what it's requiring you to leave behind, what it's making possible, and who you're in the process of becoming.
The Enneagram is one of the most useful tools I draw from in transition work because it illuminates the specific patterns, defences, and self-concept structures that formed in the previous chapter and may not serve the next one. Understanding your type at depth changes the transition from something that's happening to you into something you can move through with genuine intention.
I also draw from Existential therapy for the questions transitions surface: Who am I now? What do I actually want? What gives my life meaning when the old structures are gone? And from somatic approaches for the body's response to upheaval, the unsettled feeling, the restlessness, the grief that lives physically before it has words.
My work draws from EMDR, somatic and sensorimotor therapy, DBT, CBT, Gestalt, Existential therapy, mindfulness, and the Enneagram, woven together based on what you need at this particular moment, not a fixed protocol.
gestalt Therapy
This might be right for you if...
You keep noticing the same patterns in your relationships and can't figure out why
You feel things deeply but struggle to stay present with them
You've spent a lot of time analyzing yourself without things actually changing
You want therapy that's active and experiential rather than just talking about your week
You carry unfinished business from past relationships or experiences that still feels present
You disconnect, go numb, or leave yourself when things get emotionally intense
You're ready to look honestly at how you show up, not just why
You want to feel more alive in your own life
Depth-Oriented Work for What Transitions Actually Ask
Life transitions are, at their core, existential events. They ask questions about identity, meaning, freedom, and what your life is actually for. My Master's from Naropa University in Clinical and Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling gave me a foundation specifically suited to this territory. Boulder attracts people who are ready to ask these questions seriously, and that's the level I work at.
My certification in Existential Psychotherapy through Noeticus Counseling Center gives me specific grounding in the questions transitions surface. My certifications in EMDR, Somatic Psychotherapy, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Trauma address the nervous system's response to change and the body-held dimensions of transition that talk alone doesn't always reach. The Enneagram gives me a precise lens for understanding the specific self-concept patterns that formed in the previous chapter.
Sessions and Pricing
I'm private pay only, which means our work is never shaped by insurance timelines or approval requirements. Sessions are $140 for 50 to 55 minutes. A free 15-minute consultation is available before any commitment.
start with a free 15 minute consultation
You don't need to have it figured out before you contact me. The first step is simply a conversation, and I'd be honored to be part of what comes next for you.
-
That's exactly where this work begins. Not knowing isn't a problem to solve before you can start. It's the territory we enter together. The goal isn't to arrive with a plan. It's to develop enough clarity about who you actually are, what you actually value, and what this transition is asking of you, that the next chapter can emerge from something real rather than something you've been told to want.
-
Therapy. The distinction matters because coaching focuses on goals, strategy, and forward movement. What I offer goes deeper, into the identity, the grief, the self-concept, and the patterns that transitions surface. We're not optimizing your next chapter. We're understanding what this one is asking of you at a level that actually changes something.
-
That's one of the most common and least acknowledged experiences of major transitions. The promotion, the move, the relationship milestone that everyone celebrates while you feel hollowed out or lost. That gap between the external success and the internal experience is real and it deserves a space. You don't need your transition to look hard to deserve support.
-
Sessions run 50 to 55 minutes and cost $140. I'm private pay only, which means the structure of our work stays entirely between us. A free 15-minute consultation is available before any commitment.
-
You can reach me by calling (720) 663-0334, emailing jacqui@pathofpurpose.org, or booking a free 15-minute consultation through the website. Path of Purpose is located at 1895 Bluff Street, Boulder, CO 80304. Telehealth sessions are available for Colorado residents throughout the state.