Does this sound familiar?

You moved to DC for the job you wanted. You ended the relationship that wasn’t working. You got the promotion you earned. On paper, these are good things—the kind of life changes other people would celebrate.

So why do you feel unmoored? Like you’re walking around in someone else’s life? Like you should be handling this better than you are?

Life transitions—even positive ones—can shake your sense of who you are. The job change that was supposed to feel exciting leaves you questioning your identity. The move to a new city that represented a fresh start leaves you lonely and disconnected. The relationship ending that you knew was right still leaves you grieving what you thought your life would be.

You’re not falling apart. You’re experiencing what happens when the structures that organized your daily life suddenly shift—and your brain, your relationships, and your sense of self all have to recalibrate.

At Therapy Group of DC, our therapists specialize in helping people navigate life transitions. We understand that major life changes—even wanted ones—can trigger anxiety, depression, and a profound sense of disorientation. You don’t have to white-knuckle through this alone.

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Is Life Transition Therapy Right for You?

You might benefit from life transition therapy if you:

• Recently moved to Washington DC and feel isolated without your established support system
• Started a new job or career and feel lost or question your competence despite your qualifications
• Ended a significant relationship and struggle with the emptiness, even though you knew it was right
• Became a parent and feel overwhelmed by the identity shift rather than just the logistics
• Lost someone important—through death, divorce, or distance—and can’t find your footing
• Achieved something you worked toward but feel empty or anxious instead of accomplished
• Face a major life change you didn’t choose and don’t know how to cope
• Feel like everyone else handles transitions better than you do
• Notice low self esteem or negative thought patterns emerging during this transition period
• Experience panic attacks, anxiety, or depressive symptoms you didn’t have before the change
• Need emotional support and coping strategies to manage stress during this period

What to know:

• Life transitions are periods of significant life changes that can affect mental health, triggering anxiety, depression, or a sense of lost identity
• Both anticipated transitions (planned changes like a new job or marriage) and unanticipated transitions (unexpected events like job loss or sudden illness) can be equally destabilizing
• Seeking therapy during major life transitions helps you develop coping strategies, process uncomfortable emotions, and build resilience for future life changes
• Life transition counseling provides a safe space to explore feelings, develop effective coping skills, and discover personal growth opportunities within the challenge
• With proper support, most people navigate life transitions successfully and emerge with deeper understanding of themselves

You’re Not Alone in This

“Life transitions—even positive ones like promotions or planned moves—are among the most common triggers for anxiety and depression. Research shows that major life changes rank among the top stressors affecting mental health, yet most people assume they should handle them easily.”

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Understanding Life Transitions

Life transitions are periods of transformation that mark endings and beginnings—the space between what was and what will be. They’re the moments when your familiar routines, relationships, roles, or sense of self fundamentally shift.

What makes navigating life transitions so challenging isn’t just the practical adjustment—it’s that transitions often trigger a crisis of meaning. Who am I if I’m not in that relationship? What do I value if this career doesn’t fulfill me? Where do I belong if this city doesn’t feel like home?

Key insight: Research shows that even positive life changes activate the same stress response as negative ones. Your brain registers any major change as potential threat—which is why the “good” transition you chose can still feel destabilizing.

Types of Life Transitions

Mental health professionals often categorize common life transitions into four types:

Anticipated transitions are life changes you can see coming and often choose: starting a new job, getting married, moving to a different city, having a child, retirement. Even when wanted, these major life transitions require significant adjustment as you develop a new lifestyle and routines.

Unanticipated transitions are unexpected life events that force sudden change: job loss, divorce, death of a loved one, sudden illness, relationship breakups. These significant life changes often feel more destabilizing because you didn’t have time to prepare mentally or practically.

Sleeper transitions are gradual shifts you don’t recognize as major life change until you’re in the middle of them: your friendships slowly fading, your relationship quietly eroding, your career becoming unfulfilling. When you finally recognize the transition, you’ve been living in it for months or years.

Non-event transitions involve things you expected to happen that didn’t: the promotion you didn’t get, the relationship that never materialized, the children you planned for but couldn’t have. These life transitions carry grief for the future you imagined.

The Emotional Stages of Life Transitions

Different models describe the stages of life transitions differently, but most people experience some version of:

Ending — Letting go of what was. This phase often involves grief, even for changes you wanted.

Neutral zone — The disorienting middle space where the old is gone but the new hasn’t solidified. This is often the hardest phase—characterized by confusion, anxiety, and questioning.

New beginning — Gradually rebuilding identity, routines, and meaning in your changed circumstances.

Not everyone moves through these life stages linearly. You might cycle between them or experience them all at once.

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Common Life Transitions

While every person’s experience of significant transitions is unique, certain types of life transitions commonly bring people to therapy:

Career transitions: Starting a new job, career change, promotions that shift your role, job loss, or retirement and the loss of professional identity.

Relationship transitions: Ending significant relationships, beginning new relationships and negotiating vulnerability, marriage, or death of a partner, parent, or close friend.

Location transitions: Moving to a new city without an established support network, relocating for work and leaving behind community, or returning to your hometown and discovering it (or you) have changed.

Family transitions: Becoming a parent, adult children leaving home, caring for aging parents, or reconciling with estranged family.

Life stage transitions: Young adults transitioning from college to career, midlife transitions questioning meaning and purpose, or aging and confronting mortality.

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Life Transitions in Washington DC

Washington DC’s unique culture intensifies certain aspects of navigating life transitions. The city’s transience means many people arrive without established support systems—you’re building a new life while also building a support network from scratch, which compounds the challenge.

DC’s professional culture also shapes how people experience career transitions. In a city where “what do you do?” is often the first question at any gathering, job changes or career uncertainty can feel like identity crises. The loss of professional status—through layoff, career change, or even just questioning whether your work matters—hits differently when your entire social world is organized around achievement.

The DC reality: The city’s demanding pace leaves little room for the “neutral zone” that transitions require. DC culture expects you to have your next move figured out immediately—but healing and integration take time.

Relationship transitions are complicated by DC’s challenging dating culture and the fact that people often relocate for their careers, meaning breakups sometimes also mean losing your entire reason for being in the city.

Many of our clients are high-functioning professionals managing major life transitions while maintaining demanding careers. They’re navigating significant life changes without the luxury of falling apart—which means the emotional distress often gets pushed underground until it emerges as anxiety, depression, or physical symptoms.

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How Life Transitions Affect Mental Health

Even positive change creates stress. When the structures organizing your daily life shift, your nervous system registers threat—regardless of whether the transition is objectively “good.”

Emotional symptoms: Anxiety about the future, depression or persistent sadness, grief for what you’ve lost, irritability, mood swings, or being untethered or not recognizing yourself.

Cognitive symptoms: Difficulty concentrating or making informed decisions, negative thought patterns like “I can’t handle this,” rumination about what you should have done differently, questioning your core values or purpose.

Physical symptoms: Sleep disruption, changes in appetite or unhealthy eating habits, fatigue, physical tension, headaches, stomach issues. Some people experience panic attacks during particularly stressful transitions.

Behavioral changes: Social withdrawal, isolating from your support network, difficulty maintaining self care routines, increased reliance on alcohol or other coping mechanisms.

Important: If you’re experiencing mental health issues during a transition—particularly thoughts of self-harm—please seek support immediately. Contact the nearest emergency room or call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

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How We Treat Life Transitions

At Therapy Group of DC, we use evidence-based approaches tailored to your specific experience of major life change. Our goal is to help you not just survive the transition, but use it as an opportunity for self discovery and personal growth.

Psychodynamic Therapy

For many people, how you experience life transitions connects to deeper patterns formed much earlier. Psychodynamic therapy explores how your early experiences with change, loss, and uncertainty shape your current responses—helping you understand why certain life changes trigger such intense reactions and how old patterns might be limiting your ability to move forward.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy helps you identify negative thought patterns that intensify distress during transitions and develop more balanced thinking. Cognitive restructuring—a core CBT technique—helps you examine whether your thoughts about the transition are accurate or catastrophizing. CBT provides practical coping strategies for managing anxiety and depression.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT helps you clarify your core values and take action aligned with those values even while experiencing difficult feelings. Rather than trying to eliminate discomfort, ACT teaches you to build resilience by moving forward despite uncertainty—recognizing that some discomfort during major life transitions is inevitable.

Mindfulness-Based Approaches

Mindfulness practices help you stay grounded in the present moment rather than getting lost in anxiety about the future. Breathing exercises and mindfulness exercises reduce the physiological stress response. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) help you observe uncomfortable emotions without being overwhelmed.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT focuses on emotional regulation and distress tolerance—skills particularly relevant when life transitions trigger intense feelings. DBT provides concrete coping mechanisms for managing emotional volatility.

What to Expect in Life Transition Therapy

Your therapist will assess your specific situation—what transition you’re navigating, how it’s affecting you, what support system you have, and what you’re hoping to achieve.

Early sessions focus on stabilization and developing immediate coping strategies to manage stress. We’ll explore the meaning this transition holds for you and what losses you’re grieving.

Ongoing work involves processing emotions, examining patterns from your history that may be intensifying your experience, and developing effective coping skills for both this transition and future life changes. The goal is emerging with improved mental health and greater capacity for handling life events.

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Our Life Transition Therapists

Our therapists understand that significant life changes—even positive ones—can destabilize your sense of self. They bring expertise in helping people navigate uncertainty and emerge stronger.

Dr. Rose Medcalf, Psy.D.
Dr. Medcalf’s warm, client-centered approach creates space to explore identity questions that transitions often raise. She helps clients reconnect with themselves when major life changes feel destabilizing. View Dr. Medcalf’s full profile →

Dr. Kevin Isserman, Psy.D.
Dr. Isserman uses psychodynamic and person-centered approaches to help clients understand themselves better during periods of change. His supportive style helps you explore what transitions mean for your sense of self. View Dr. Isserman’s full profile →

Dr. Keith Clemson, Ph.D., LPC
Dr. Clemson helps clients navigate the emotional complexity of major life transitions using psychodynamic approaches. His focus on self-compassion helps when you’re judging yourself for struggling with change. View Dr. Clemson’s full profile →

Dr. Tyler Miles, Psy.D.
Dr. Miles specializes in using ACT and CBT to help high-functioning professionals manage transitions without falling apart. Her approach helps you act consistently with your values even during uncertainty. View Dr. Miles’s full profile →

Dr. Jennifer Melo, Psy.D.
Dr. Melo integrates psychodynamic and trauma-focused approaches, particularly helpful when current transitions activate old wounds. Her expertise with trauma helps when life changes trigger deeper emotional responses. View Dr. Melo’s full profile →

Dr. Dana Treistman, Ph.D.
Dr. Treistman uses CBT and mindfulness to help clients develop effective coping strategies for managing anxiety during life changes. View Dr. Treistman’s full profile →

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Begin Life Transition Therapy in Washington DC

You don’t have to navigate this alone. Whether you chose this change or it chose you, whether it looks like progress or loss from the outside, your experience of disorientation and struggle is real.

Life transition therapy helps you process what you’re feeling, understand what this change means for you, and develop the coping strategies you need to move forward. With the right support, transitions become opportunities for personal growth and self discovery rather than just periods to survive.

Schedule an Appointment →

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 4 types of life transitions?

Mental health professionals categorize life transitions into four types: anticipated transitions (planned changes like a new job or marriage), unanticipated transitions (unexpected events like job loss or sudden illness), sleeper transitions (gradual changes you don’t recognize until significant), and non-event transitions (expected changes that don’t happen). Each type affects mental health differently and requires different coping strategies.

What are life transitions in therapy?

Life transitions refer to significant life changes that disrupt your sense of identity, routine, or relationships. Life transition counseling helps you process emotions these changes trigger, understand deeper patterns affecting how you respond, and develop effective coping skills. Therapy provides emotional support during the transition process and helps you use change as an opportunity for personal growth.

How to deal with transitions in life?

Effective strategies include: build a support network of caring individuals, practice consistent self care (including sleep hygiene and healthy eating habits), use mindfulness and breathing exercises to manage stress, maintain structure through daily routines, set realistic expectations for adjustment, and seek professional help when needed. Life transition therapy provides developing coping strategies tailored to your situation.

What are examples of transitions in life?

Common life transitions include career changes (new job, promotion, job loss, retirement), relationship changes (marriage, divorce, breakup, death of loved ones), location changes (moving to a new city), family transitions (becoming a parent, adult children leaving, caring for aging parents), and life stage transitions. Even positive change—like a wanted career transition—can trigger anxiety and require significant adjustment.

What are the stages of life transition?

Most models describe three stages: the ending phase (letting go, often involving grief), the neutral zone (disorienting middle space where old patterns no longer work but new ones haven’t formed), and the new beginning (gradually rebuilding identity and meaning). People don’t always move through these life stages linearly—you might cycle between them or experience multiple stages simultaneously.