Ep. 69 Reclaiming Your Identity After Retirement with Michael Sissison

Today’s interview is not about our guest’s identity transition but rather how some of his clients experience it in conjunction with retirement. Michael Sissison, a clinical psychologist in South Africa, has helped many people who were fine, but unexpectedly lost their sense of identity when they retired. He describes retirement as a rite of passage and how it can negatively impact identity because many haven’t prepared for its emotional and psychological impact. Two common struggles are:

1. Through whose critical gaze did I live my life? 

2. How can I avoid living with bitterness and regret?

Find out why people, particularly those with financial success, feel trepidation when it comes to retirement. What challenges does this present for managing loss, the unpredictability of change, and generating something new? How does retirement change interpersonal relationships and your relationship with your body? How does one integrate decades of life experience into a new version of themselves, one without their status role in the workplace? How do they adjust to new spaces that open up to fill the void? Just how much do picnics on the beach and playdates with grandchildren fulfill their need for meaning and satisfaction?

Bio

Michael Sissison is a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, life transition coach and speaker. His journey as a psychologist and psychotherapist has exposed him to stories of human struggle. One such struggle has been the difficulty of adjusting to looming retirement.

He’s always wondered why so much emphasis is placed on school planning, having a child, financial planning, moving home, and marital preparation while discussion around psychological preparation for retirement is pushed into the background - seemingly forgotten and left behind. Just as there is so much discussion around raising a child in the early formative years, he believes that one’s latter years of development are of equal importance. But this crucial life transitional phase into retirement is often not adequately prepared for. How many of us have avoided sometimes difficult conversations about our final movement into life’s next stage?

Seemingly well set up for heading into the golden years, he’s noticed a gap and dearth of discussion around psychological challenges which inevitably arise - the adjustment to new life spaces, loss of work status, loss of life purpose, loss of body strength, the encroachment of physical decay and the inevitability of mortality, amongst others. Retirement impacts a person’s sense of self and relationship to others and one’s body. The challenge is to accept and integrate the changing status of one’s psychological, spiritual, and physical challenges.

These observations, together with helping his own parents navigate their retirement, has led him to running retirement workshops and coaching people for life beyond what they know. His aim is to move people into a place of generativity, love and joy as opposed to stagnation, inertia and bitterness. He looks forward to sharing his knowledge with you.

Guest Info.

https://linkedin.com Website: https://michaelsissison.com/

[email protected]

Julie’s Info.

https://linkedin.com/in/julie-browne-courage-ignite

https://instagram.com/juliebrownecourageignite 

https://facebook.com/juliebrownecourageignite

Podcast — Bold Becoming

Book — Masters of Change 

Website

Email — [email protected]

Music — Happy African Village by John Bartmann

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