News & Events

Research Participants Wanted

Reinventing your life at mid-life

Midlife can be the most rewarding time—time for reflection, rejuvenation, and reveling, according to a recent article in Parade Magazine. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung believed that the middle period of life is a time of enormous psychological importance.  It’s often the time when we seek to truly understand the meaning of life. Yet we embark on this journey without much preparation. In high school and college, we learn the rules for successful living (at least defined by society). And we spend the next few decades fulfilling goals and living by rules that likely were set for us by our parents or society. In the second half, many of us question those goals and rules but are lost as to “what to do next.” 

While inspirational stories abound about individuals—particularly women—who have found new paths at mid-life, we believe that many individuals need more than inspiration. Thus, we are writing a book with practical tools and techniques to help readers maneuver through this challenging time, rekindle their creative spirit, redefine their mental models, and rediscover purpose and direction. 

To provide these tools and processes, we are asking individuals who have found a new path to participate in our research study. Participants in the research will be individuals who have made major life changes at approximately age 50 or later, or who are in the process of dealing with such a transition. Prior to interviews, participants will receive a set of proposed questions and will sign a standard form, covering the rights of research subjects in qualitative interviews. Participants are guaranteed anonymity, since we plan to protect identities in the use of stories in the book through the use of pseudonyms.

If you are interested in participating or know someone who might be interested, please e-mail 1966 classmates Judy DeBrandt or Lynne Levesque.