Hi everyone it's another episode of the savvy psychologist I'm your host

Dr Ellen Hendrickson and every week I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic

ear, and zero judgment.

So two listeners, Karen and Janice, independently wrote in and asked how to deal with life's big changes.

And big changes aren't limited to those things your HR manager refers to as life events,

like getting married or divorced divorced losing or adding a family

member changing jobs or retiring a life change can also be anything that leaves

you wishing for an emergency stop button. Immigrating, being diagnosed with a chronic or

terminal illness, coming out, gender transitioning, deployment, even getting or losing a pet can change your life.

And around this time of year, for millions of students,

change means graduating from high school or college.

And for millions of parents, it means the change of an empty nest. Now

thankfully there is a name for this kind of upheaval. It's called Roll Transition.

An inner-roll transition you disengage from one role and start again in another.

And the change is most often experienced as both a loss and a gain.

And sometimes we feel the loss most acutely.

For example, being diagnosed with an illness may mean the loss of functionality even if it

means gaining perspective on what matters most in your life.

But with other changes we reap mostly gains.

So in getting married, we may be happy to trade in our single life

for a loving partner.

Either way, how do we deal with life's only constant? Well, let's cover four

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