Experiencing major life transitions or changes can be stressful and challenging on many levels. It is normal to feel overwhelmed sometimes and to take a while to adjust. However some of these transitions can be so overwhelming that they can start to have a huge impact on our mood, emotions and how we manage our day-to-day life.

Difficulties often occur with transitions that are unexpected, such as the death of someone close, being made redundant, dealing with an illness or serious injury. However, it can also happen during expected life transitions such as ‘significant’ birthdays, moving out of home, starting college, getting married, becoming a parent or retiring.

Some signs that the transitions are negatively impacting you include disturbed sleep, excessive worrying, withdrawal, avoiding talking about it, feeling irritable, stressed or using drugs or alcohol to manage your feelings about it.

If this feels familiar, it may be beneficial to seek help from a professional. A psychotherapist can help you with your specific challenges and to identify why you are feeling this way. Together, you can develop appropriate coping strategies to address this stage in your life. You will learn to adapt to the changes taking place and gain a more positive perspective.

A Range Of Experts Available To You

IAHIP Psychotherapists are trained to help navigate people through Life Transitions. You can search the IAHIP Psychotherapist Directory for this particular issue or any of the issues that may have developed from these changes.

On the Directory page, simply type the issue into the ‘Areas of Interest’ Box:

Additional Resources

For more information on Life Transitions, you can access articles from our professional journal - Inside Out. Go to the top left of this website page and enter ‘Life Transitions’ into the search box.