The Art and Science of Effectively Managing Challenging Life Transitions

Life is a constant sequence of transitions.

Transitions in life happen every day though they vary in their frequency, from the daily transitions of awake to sleep and sleep to awake, leaving home to go to work and leaving work and arriving home, through the less frequent transitions like leaving school. getting a job, changing jobs, forming and maintaining a relationship to the very rare but often very impactful transitions like having a baby, retiring, and bereavement. Some transitions are constant, like aging.

Transitions vary in the challenges that they present. It is not just the big ones that can greatly
challenge us, little everyday transitions can be greatly upsetting for example, trouble getting to sleep, maintaining a difficult job or relationship.

Transitions are often more challenging if they are not expected. Even challenges that we know
intellectually to expect can be additionally upsetting when we actually experience them for the first time, for example losing a tooth at the dentist, a job finishing, a relationship ending, moving home, retirement, aging.

How we manage transitions is vitally important. If we do not manage them effectively we can add
unnecessary pain and suffering, and create additional problems for ourself and others, as well as
making future transitions more challenging. When managed well we can learn and develop, making future transitions easier to manage and even to use them to add quality and value to our life and the lives of others.

In this practical training John McWhirter will introduce a number of new distinctions, models, and processes from his modelling of transitions with Developmental Behavioural Modelling (DBM®).