Navigating Change: How Interpersonal Therapy Supports Life Transitions
Life has a habit of shifting beneath our feet. Sometimes it’s expected — a new job, moving home, becoming a parent. Other times it’s sudden or unwanted, such as a relationship breakdown, health changes, or redundancy. Even changes that look positive from the outside can leave you feeling unsettled, overwhelmed, or as if you’ve somehow lost your footing.
Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) recognises this. One of its core areas of focus — Role Transitions — is designed specifically to support you through periods of change, helping you adjust emotionally, practically, and interpersonally. If you’re currently navigating a life transition and finding it harder than you’d anticipated, you’re far from alone.
In this post, we’ll explore what role transitions are, why they can feel so destabilising, and how IPT can provide clarity, grounding, and support as you adjust.
What Is a Role Transition?
In IPT, a role refers to your place, responsibilities, and identity within different parts of life — work, relationships, family, health, or social roles. A role transition happens when a major change forces you to let go of an old role and adapt to a new one.
Examples include:
Becoming a parent (or becoming a parent again)
Moving home or relocating to a new area
Starting or leaving a job
Retirement
Changes in health or physical ability
Starting or ending a relationship
Children leaving home
Recovery from illness or injury
Changes in financial or social circumstances
Even if the change is positive, it still involves loss — loss of routine, identity, stability, or familiarity. And with loss comes emotion.
Why Transitions Can Feel So Difficult
From the outside, you might feel you “should” be coping. You might even tell yourself you have nothing to complain about because the change was something you chose, or something others view as exciting.
But internally it can feel very different.
Transitions often shake:
Your sense of identity (“Who am I now?”)
Your confidence (“I don’t know how to do this yet”)
Your routines (which can leave you feeling unmoored)
Your relationships (roles often shift alongside expectations)
Your emotional grounding (uncertainty naturally brings anxiety)
Many people feel a mixture of grief for what’s been lost and fear about what lies ahead. Others feel numb, adrift, or disconnected from their old life and their new one.
IPT views all of this as not only understandable, but expected. It doesn’t rush you through the discomfort — it helps you make sense of it, process it, and find a way forward that feels more manageable and meaningful.
How IPT Helps You Navigate Transitions
When IPT focuses on role transitions, the aim isn’t simply to help you “cope”. It’s to support you in understanding the emotional impact of change, adjusting to new demands, and strengthening the relationships and supports around you.
Here’s what that looks like in therapy:
1. Exploring What’s Been Lost
Every transition involves an ending. You might not have given yourself time to acknowledge that.
IPT helps you:
recognise and name emotions you may have pushed aside
make sense of what you miss about your old role
understand why letting go feels difficult
This isn’t about dwelling — it’s about validating your experience so you can move forward rather than feeling stuck.
2. Understanding the Challenges of the New Role
Together, we explore what the new role actually entails:
What expectations are you trying to meet?
What’s realistic — and what isn't?
Where are you placing pressure on yourself?
What feels unfamiliar, frightening or confusing?
This often brings enormous relief. When things are named, they’re much easier to navigate.
3. Building Skills for the New Phase of Life
Transitions sometimes require new skills or adjustments. IPT might help you:
build confidence in communication
develop strategies for new responsibilities
expand your social support network
create more sustainable routines
find ways to manage emotional overwhelm
Small practical shifts often create big emotional changes.
4. Strengthening Your Support System
Change can feel lonelier than we expect. IPT helps you understand:
who you can rely on
how to communicate your needs
where connection might need strengthening
how to build new sources of support
Many people discover they aren’t as alone as they thought — they just needed a space to understand how to reach out.
5. Reframing the Transition
Eventually, therapy helps you shift from “I’ve lost something” to “I’m growing into something new”.
This can involve:
redefining your identity within the new role
recognising strengths you’ve developed
connecting with new values or priorities
building a sense of purpose and direction
It’s not about pretending everything is perfect — it’s about finding stability and meaning again.
What IPT Sessions Look Like When Focusing on Transitions
IPT is time-limited and structured, usually lasting between 12–20 sessions.
Early Sessions
We work together to understand:
the change you’re facing
the emotional impact
your relationships and support network
what feels hardest right now
We identify the heart of the transition — the specific parts that feel most painful or uncertain.
Middle Sessions
This phase focuses on:
emotional processing
adapting to new demands
strengthening communication
exploring practical adjustments
building confidence and support
It’s collaborative, grounded in your real-life experiences, and focused on making change feel manageable.
Ending Sessions
We consolidate your progress and look ahead:
what’s improved
what feels different internally
what strategies are helpful going forward
how to maintain momentum after therapy
Ending therapy can feel like a transition in itself — and IPT makes space for that too.
You Don’t Have to Navigate Change Alone
We often underestimate how deeply transitions can impact us. You may find yourself thinking:
“I should be coping better than this.”
“Other people manage this — why can’t I?”
“I feel guilty for struggling.”
“I feel lost and I don’t know who to talk to.”
But struggling with change doesn’t mean you’re weak — it means you’re human.
IPT offers a structured, compassionate space to understand what this transition means for you, emotionally and practically, and to find your footing again as life shifts around you.
If any of this resonates — whether you’re in the middle of a major life change or can feel one approaching — you’re welcome to reach out. I’m always happy to talk things through and help you find the support you need.
If you think you might benefit from IPT or want to chat about how therapy could support you through a transition, feel free to get in touch to arrange a free consultation.
You don’t have to navigate change on your own. I’m here when you’re ready.
