Professional Transitions

Navigating Career and Retirement Transitions

Professional Transitions2023-10-11T18:40:25-06:00

We understand the challenges that career professionals face later in their career.  We have spent two decades helping accomplished career professionals navigate the career and retirement transitions that are unique to this time in life.

We work with individuals across diverse occupations – including organizational leaders, lawyers, accountants, teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, business owners, and entrepreneurs, just to name a few – to navigate transformational career and retirement transitions.

Perceptive offers both instructor-led online courses and individual one-on-one career and retirement transition coaching.

Perceptive Transitions Program

Forward Focused

Our Online Perceptive Transitions Program will stimulate your thinking about this time in your life, help you ask the important questions, and provide you with a powerful framework and tools for navigating career and retirement transitions.

You’ll have the opportunity to intentionally pause, amidst the swirl of everyday life, and take in new information and perspectives to support you in charting an inspired and meaningful course ahead that is your desired future.

Join our thoughtfully designed program exclusively for career professionals later in their career who want to revitalize their career, or possibly change careers, or are planning a post-career transition into a next chapter that goes beyond traditional definitions of retirement.

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Businessman discussing work on video call with team members

An Engaging Online Learning Experience

All courses are held on Zoom in a highly interactive online format. Our smaller more intimate group class sizes are conducive to great connections and conversations.

At Perceptive, we have been teaching online for over a decade and have developed innovative ways to create an engaging online learning experience.

Our interactive course format combined with deep knowledge of the subject matter, expert facilitation, and a wonderful group of program participants with shared experiences, come together to create what participants tell us is a stellar experience that exceeds their expectations.

Learn more about what program participants have to say.

Online Perceptive Transitions Courses and Coaching

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

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Revitalizing Career Course

Are you looking to sustain and invigorate your current career or are you considering a career change? Our Revitalizing Career course will help you critically consider whether to stay in your current occupation and what changes this may require, while simultaneously exploring whether a career change might be a better choice and what that transition may look like.

Are you ready to revitalize your career?

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Reinventing Retirement Course

Are you looking to start the next chapter of your life outside of your professional career but struggle with how to do so? We understand. Your career may be a predominant focus and a defining part of your life. However, retirement doesn’t mean retiring from life or even necessarily from work all together. Our Reinventing Retirement course will expand your perspective and help you create a vision for living this next chapter in your life.

Are you ready to invent your retirement?

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One-On-0ne Personal Transition Coaching

Learning with others in one of our online courses may be all you need. Working with a coach in a one-on-one format that is personalized to your situation and needs may also be a great choice. Our One-On-One Transition Coaching can be a tremendous resource to help you achieve profound shifts in your thinking and perspective, explore new possibilities and options, and in the end, create the life you want to live.

Learn more about Perceptive Transition Coaching »

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Short Courses on Topics of Interest

Continue and expand your learning experience by joining one of our Short Courses any time they are offered. These discussion-based courses were originally developed in response to students in our programs at the University of Denver asking us to take them on a deeper dive into important topics at midlife and beyond. We continue to evolve these courses and add to them.

Learn more about our topical Short Courses »

Perceptive Professional Transitions Framework©

A Powerful, Pioneering and Proven Process

Our proprietary framework has been designed specifically for accomplished career professionals for navigating professional transitions.

Our Framework is powerful in its ability to help people move forward at a time when feeling stuck is a common experience. Our pioneering approach goes beyond conventional thinking to both career and retirement transitions to help you move forward into a satisfying next chapter in your life.

We use the aperture of a camera as a metaphor. Each part of the five-step process works together like an aperture to let light in – expanding your perspective to help you see new and exciting possibilities that propel you forward.

Grounded in 25 years of research, it’s been forged by over two decades of working with hundreds of accomplished mid-to-later career professionals in the workplace, in the classroom in the Focus Forward Program at the University of Denver, and in our online courses.

Learn more about the history of Perceptive Transitions

Snapshot of Past Program Participants:

  • Career professionals across diverse occupations – including organizational leaders, lawyers, accountants, teachers, doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers, artists, business owners and entrepreneurs, just to name a few.
  • 25 years of professional experience, on average
  • 54 years of age, on average

This Program is Right for You if:

  • You are a career professional with 20+ years of experience
  • You see yourself at a critical juncture or transitional point in your life
  • You may be feeling a bit stuck or unsure how best to move forward
  • You want to explore future possibilities for the next chapter in your life
  • You enjoy learning with others in a smaller more intimate learning experience
  • You appreciate having the option to work one-on-one with a highly experienced transition coach

Program Highlights

  • Engage with other mid-to-later career professionals like you
  • Online, highly interactive, virtual learning format
  • Six-week intensive Courses and three-week Short Courses
  • Instructor-led by expert faculty and guest presenters
  • Presentation, discussion, individual exercises format
  • Materials include program eBook, worksheets, and other resources
  • Smaller class sizes for a more intimate learning experience
  • Optional Individual Coaching with a highly trained and certified coach

Lori is a remarkable teacher and an intuitive facilitator. She brings a warmth and engagement that invites people to be fully present, even when everyone is joining online. She has the wisdom to help guide a conversation to flow and the flexibility to respond to the needs of the group. I have loved being a fellow learner on this journey with Lori.

Patricia Sandler

I am incredibly appreciative of the opportunity to participate in this course with Lori as our adept, warm, intuitive, and knowledgeable leader…More »

Monica Roers

Taking this course was a transformative experience. The material encouraged me to look at my lifetime of professional work in an entirely…More »

Hilary Moreland

I found myself among a wonderfully diverse group of people, all of whom were either beginning or in the midst of life transitions…More »

Nancy Greager

Meet the Faculty

Program FAQ

It might be helpful to know that there are three recognized stages in a career: early-career, mid-career, and later-career. Think of it as a continuum of your professional life. At later-career most of us have been immersed in a professional life for 25 years or more. it’s important to have a professional life that works well for you at this pivotal time in life and in the years ahead.
Yes, if you feel you would enjoy the learning experience together. Many couples have taken Reinventing Retirement together and tell us that they found it incredibly helpful in thinking about how this chapter in life will look for them. We have had many friends and colleagues take Revitalizing Career together and tell us that it was great to have someone to do the in-between classes assignments with.
We suggest you allow about 30 minutes to complete the pre-work (one time) and Considerations Questionnaire, and about an hour for the assignments in between classes. Everyone is different so we suggest you use this information as a guide. If you take advantage of the additional online resources and working with a coach this will add to your experience and the time you’ll spend on the course.
Yes, you will meet and engage online with our faculty and guest presenters teaching the course you are enrolled in. The classes are kept small to allow for a more intimate learning experience. If you are interested in our optional one-on-one coaching services, this would be another opportunity to engage with faculty on a more personal level specific to your unique situation.
Yes, about half the people who enroll in the course don’t know if they want to change careers, or if they do, to what. This course is specifically designed to help you think through whether and how a career change may make sense for you. Many people tell us that it’s the act of considering what else they might do that is most helpful in making this decision.
No, not directly. This course is not designed to help with the job search process. There are many resources out there to help with this and we do suggest a few you might consider. This course will help you explore whether you want to stay in your current career or change careers. For people who decide that they want to change careers they tell us that the course helped them begin this process.
No, not directly. The course is not intended to take the place of working with a good financial advisor. The course will help you explore the emotional aspect of money and how that relates to retirement readiness. The focus of the course is primarily on all the non-financial aspects of preparing for this important next chapter in life.
You will have the course materials for that class so in this way you will not miss out. When taking the course with someone you know it gives you the option of talking about the missed class together. Some students have reported that this was very helpful. We recommend that if you know that you are going to miss more than one class, you consider taking the course at a later date.
Our goal is for everyone to be very satisfied with the course. Everyone is different which is why we do not make guarantees. It may be helpful to know that over the past decade of teaching these courses we have rarely had students who were not satisfied with the course. We do student surveys which gives us important feedback on our courses.

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