When Life Shifts: Navigating Change with Strength
Change is one of the few constants in life. While some transitions are welcomed, others arrive unexpectedly and bring uncertainty, stress, and emotional upheaval. If you are navigating a difficult season of change, you are not alone, and support is available.
Common Life Transitions That Cause Stress
It’s important to remember that even positive changes can feel overwhelming because they disrupt what feels familiar and safe, this includes changes that are entirely our choice.
Common high-stress transitions include relationship changes, boundary-setting, becoming a parent or navigating empty nesting, career changes, moving, health diagnoses, legal stress, grief and loss, identity shifts, children leaving or returning home, and financial hardship.
These transitions often challenge our sense of stability, identity, safety, and control.
Mental Health Challenges During Transitions
During times of change, people may experience anxiety, depression, sleep disruptions, irritability, difficulty concentrating, physical tension, grief reactions, trauma responses, fear of the unknown, and decreased self-esteem and self-confidence.
These responses do not reflect weakness; they are natural signs of your nervous system adjusting to uncertainty and experiences that are often outside of your comfort zone.
Why Transitions Feel So Hard
Transitions often activate three core fears:
Loss of control: The future feels uncertain, and losing control can create feelings of fear.
Loss of identity: “Who am I, now that things are changing?” “Am I doing this right?”
Loss of security: “What if things don’t work out?” “What if I fail?” “What if I can’t...?”
Even positive change requires letting go of the known, which can feel deeply uncomfortable and unsettling.
Practical Ways to Make Transitions Easier
Normalize the struggle: Feeling overwhelmed is human. Allow yourself to grieve what you are leaving behind.
Focus on what you can control: Your routine, reactions, boundaries, and self-care matter.
Ground yourself: Slow/deep breathing, walking outdoors, and gentle stretching help calm the nervous system.
Clarify your values: Ask what matters most right now and what you want your next chapter to represent.
Watch for unhealthy coping: Awareness of avoidance, isolation, or substance use is the first step toward change.
Strengthen your support system: Trusted people, faith communities, and therapy provide essential stability.
Consider professional support: Therapy can help process grief, heal from trauma, build confidence, clarify decisions, and restore balance.
When to Seek Counseling
Counseling may be especially helpful if you find yourself stuck in fear, overwhelmed by anxiety or sadness, struggling with sleep or focus, questioning your identity or self-worth, feeling trapped in unhealthy patterns, or experiencing trauma within a transition. You don’t have to wait until you “fall apart” to reach out.
A Final Word of Encouragement
Transitions can feel disorienting, but they are also powerful opportunities for healing and growth. Remember, you are not starting over, you are starting forward.
If you are walking through a difficult season and would like support, our counseling team is here to help.
Monique M. Schofield, MA, PCLC
References
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2016). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.3.513
Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.