Pergola
For the in-between seasons

Therapy for Life Transitions

Sometimes the hardest thing isn't a diagnosis or a crisis — it's that everything is changing at once and you're supposed to be fine about it. A new job. A move across the country. The end of a long relationship. A kid leaving home. Becoming a parent. Turning a number that feels heavier than the last one. A quiet realization that the life you built isn't the one you actually want.

The therapists on this page work with people in these in-between seasons — when the old self doesn't quite fit anymore and the new self hasn't arrived yet. The work isn't about fixing you. It's about having a steady room where you can think out loud, grieve what you're leaving behind, and get clearer about what you're moving toward.

Often the transition itself isn't the problem — it's the unprocessed grief under it, or the anxiety about the unknown, or a pattern from earlier in your life that this change is bringing back up. Good therapy helps you notice what's actually happening, not just the surface of it.

3 therapists offering life transitions therapy
Sarah Chen, LMFT, therapist in Bay Area
Sarah Chen, LMFT
Hayes Valley, San Francisco

Helping adults navigate anxiety and life transitions

AnxietyLife TransitionsTrauma / PTSD
Accepting new clients$220/session
Marcus Alvarez, LCSW, therapist in Los Angeles
Marcus Alvarez, LCSW
Silver Lake, Los Angeles

Therapy for men, couples, and the complicated middle

CouplesDepressionLife Transitions
Accepting new clients$250/session
James Okafor, LPCC, therapist in Bay Area
James Okafor, LPCC
Oakland

ADHD, burnout, and building a life that actually fits

ADHDAnxietyLife Transitions
Waitlist$200/session

Common questions

Do I need to be in crisis to do therapy for a life transition?+
No — and honestly, the earlier you come in, the easier the work tends to be. Therapy during a transition is preventative as much as curative. It helps you make the move with more clarity and less collateral damage, rather than waiting until things have gotten harder than they needed to.
What kinds of life transitions do therapists here work with?+
All of them. Career changes, moves, divorces and breakups, becoming a parent, an empty nest, retirement, identity shifts, post-diagnosis adjustments, leaving a community or religion, coming out, recovering from burnout, the quiet midlife reckoning. The specific transition matters less than having someone in the room as you work through it.
What's the difference between a life coach and a therapist for this kind of thing?+
Coaches generally focus on goal-setting and forward-motion — useful when you know what you want and need accountability getting there. Therapists can do some of that too, but they're also trained to work with the emotional weight underneath: grief, fear, old patterns from your family of origin, the identity work that big transitions tend to kick up. For most transitions, therapy goes deeper.
How long does this kind of therapy usually take?+
It varies. Some people do 8–12 sessions of focused work around a specific decision or transition. Others stay longer, especially if the transition is surfacing older material. Your therapist will check in regularly on what the work is moving and whether it's still what you need.
I feel ridiculous coming to therapy for this. It's not like anything's really wrong.+
This is one of the most common things people say in their first session, and it's one of the biggest reasons people wait too long. You don't need to be in crisis to benefit from therapy. Most of the people doing this work are, by outside measures, doing fine — and they're still quietly struggling with something. That's a legitimate reason to be here.

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