Occupational transitions: restructuring a life

This personal reflection on occupational transitions is based on the life stories of two of the interesting people I met while in Chile, one in Santiago and the other in my travels to San Pedro de Atacama and how their stories have aided in strengthening my knowledge of occupational transitions.

Purposeful restructuring of one's life is key to developing identity and meaningful engagement in daily and occupational life.

Both Mauricio and Francisco share, through their occupational transition self-narratives, how they restructured their lives by finding out who they really were, as well as what was most important to them.

I believe that the consistent theme or catalyst of change within these stories is one of being unsatisfied with a current situation and as a result, making a conscious decision to recreate/restructure one's identity and sense of being.

When seeking to both understand and apply a term like occupational transition, it will be important to not preclude the individual human stories, both told and untold, that will enable a more complete and compassionate understanding of occupational transitions for both researchers and clinicians.