Building Resilience: Supporting Clients Through Life Transitions

Change is a universal human experience and with it comes a multitude of experiences, emotions, and challenges. There are critical junctures in life, often referred to as life transitions, that bring about a significant amount of change for an individual due to quickly and vastly evolving circumstances. Some people find that they move through these transitions relatively easily, while others may require more support in adapting to the changes that may come. This article explores the concept of life transitions and how counseling for life transitions can help clients to build resilience and find positive personal growth during such periods of transformation.
WHAT ARE LIFE TRANSITIONS?
The term life transition refers to a significant change in an individual’s personal, professional, or social life requiring one to adapt to new circumstances, responsibilities, or roles than previously held. Life transitions are often marked by important events but they can also occur as a result of unmet expectations for one’s life.
Types of Life Transitions
Anticipated life transitions are changes that you expected to happen. Because anticipated life transitions may allow for some level of predictability, an individual might experience a greater sense of control than for other types of life transitions. Examples of anticipated life transitions include graduating from high school, having a child, or entering into retirement. 
Unanticipated life transitions are changes in life that occur without notice and without the ability to plan. Unanticipated life transitions might include experiences such as the death of a close family member, an unexpected medical diagnosis, or the loss of a job.
Non-event life transitions are changes we expected to occur in life but do not. Non-event life transitions stem from unmet expectations an individual might have for their life, for example, not having children when one expected to or not being able to retire at the anticipated age due to financial difficulties.
Examples of Common Life Transitions
Among many others, the following are some common types of life transitions that people might seek a counselor for:

• Developmental transitions – change that occurs at milestone ages such as entering into adulthood at 18 or entering into retirement age
• Relational transitions – adjusting to a change in relationship status such as navigating a divorce, entering into marriage, or losing a loved one
• Career transitions – marked by a change in job status such as retiring or being promoted from a current position
• Health transitions – navigating a medical diagnosis or change in health status such as adjusting to life with a chronic illness or experiencing a major injury that impacts one’s lifestyle
• Identity transitions – adjusting to changes in culture such as during a significant move or getting involved in a new community

HOW DO LIFE TRANSITIONS AFFECT INDIVIDUALS AND HOW CAN COUNSELING HELP?
Any considerable transition comes with acute stressors that may affect an individual’s mental health. The overarching goal of counseling for life transitions is to support the client in processing the change and navigating its effects in a way that is meaningful to them. Because people react differently to stress, there is no one size fits all method to counseling but sessions may often focus on building resilience and confidence while learning how to manage stress and its many effects on health and lifestyle for a better experience of the life transition. A counselor’s role in supporting positive coping mechanisms is important and ever-evolving. For those interested in advancing their knowledge of how to support such clients, the Kentucky Society for Clinical Social Work provides helpful continuing education trainings and events to help clinicians further their skills and education.
Effective Strategies in Counseling for Life Transitions
The following are common techniques used in counseling for life transitions to specifically target the challenging experience of and emotions surrounding major change:

• Resilience training

In order to increase adaptiveness and manage resistance, which is often a natural response to change, counselors can engage clients in techniques that promote resilience such as goal setting, reframing of unhelpful thoughts, practicing acceptance, and the development of problem-solving skills.

• Emotional support through active listening

It is widely believed that one of the most effective tools of counseling is the therapeutic relationship itself. Creating an environment of trust and support through active listening can help the client break through resistance, process difficult emotions, and find easier direction in goal setting during transitional times.

• Mindfulness practice

Practicing mindfulness during challenging times can bring greater clarity and rationality while processing difficult emotions. Mindfulness brings us into deeper awareness of our bodies, helps us use curiosity to explore different feelings as they come up, and supports the maintenance of healthy routines which all allow for more effective processing of the experience of change and the emotions that may come with it. The Kentucky Society for Clinical Social Work has an excellent database of mindfulness resources that can be downloaded and used with clients.

• Identifying and building support networks

Helping clients to foster connections with others who understand their circumstances or who clients can turn to during difficult times is an important tool for building and maintaining resilience. Supporting clients in prioritizing relationships helps to decrease isolation, which can be a common response to experiencing challenging times, and encourages opportunities for positive emotional connection.

• Self-reflection and personal growth learning

Change can be good but there is a mindset shift that must occur in order for an individual to find growth in the midst of a difficult transition. An important role of the counselor is to support clients in reflecting on both past and present experiences and how the changes they have experienced throughout life have shaped who they are and who they would like to become.

• Goal setting

Major life transitions are often difficult to process because they can leave a person feeling directionless. Where one may previously have found purpose in their routines, responsibilities, or roles, the changes that have occurred may result in a sense of loss. Clinicians can help clients gain clarity in their goals for the future and find direction during a time of cloudy vision by breaking down values, establishing important objectives they may have for the future, and identifying steps toward achieving these goals.

• Cognitive-behavioral techniques

Counselors can help clients manage transition-induced stress, anxiety, and other difficult emotional states by teaching and practicing coping skills that combat the negative mindset often perpetuating such feelings. Among other interventions, useful techniques may include cognitive restructuring, relaxation exercises, skills training, and successive approximation.
CONCLUSION
There are a number of therapeutic frameworks and techniques that are helpful in treating clients moving through periods of significant change. Because change is an inevitable part of life, it is important for clinicians to understand how to support clients through major life transitions in meaningful and beneficial ways.
Among other resources, the Kentucky Society for Clinical Social Work hosts peer supervision and support for clinicians through a monthly group, where counselors may seek advice for treating clients through major life transitions.

--Peyton Fisher, MSW




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