Title Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes (25th anniversary edition)
Author William Bridges
Publisher Da Capo Press Inc.
ISBN 978 07382 0904 3
Usefulness 4/5
Transitions is a classic text, offering context, comfort and support for people experiencing difficulties with change, and a source of insight and guidance for the coaches working with them. In particular, Bridges explains how apparently positive changes, such as marriage, the birth of children or significant promotion, themselves involve a loss or an ending of a previous self-image, which can be traumatic.
Bridges defines transition in three stages: ending, beginning and emptiness and germination in-between – the ‘Neutral Zone’ – that frustrating, seemingly endless stage when people don’t seem to make any progress.
For Bridges, transition is an internal process, which may or may not be related to an external event. The key to a successful transition is accepting changes to old outlooks, value systems or self-image. Classically, this is why so many people fail to stop smoking – they can’t let go of their self-image as a smoker or embrace a new one as a non-smoker.
It is a fairly short, yet sometimes wordy book, and there could be less on tribal customs around initiation and other transition points, given that Bridges accepts we cannot adopt these approaches in our own cultures. Apart from that small quibble, a useful read.
Charlotte Baker is founder of Undine Coaching www.undinecoaching.com
Coaching at Work, Volume 6, Issue 4