DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

Phase 4 – Post-Crisis: Resolution
After a period of experimentation comes re-commitment to new roles, to new
beliefs and new relationships, while retaining much of the exploratory emphasis of
Phase 3.
A New, Flexible Life Structure
Guy develops a post-crisis life structure that is based on a new freelance
career, in which he tries to provide help to people in turbulent and stressful
organisations. He develops his allegiance to Kabala spirituality and finds a new,
fulfilling relationship with a woman in America. He focuses far more attention on his
children than he did prior to his crisis.
After training in life-coaching, Neil develops his own practice, which provides
a people-focused outlet that balances a part-time career in IT. He decides to do IT for
three days a week, and to take 60% of his salary, so that he can develop the lifecoaching
practice.
Ben spends several years experimenting with alternative possibilities for
himself and his career, before finding resolution in his work life. He realises that a
post in academia is for him after all, and so comes back to what he was doing
originally:
“And eventually I got the feeling this is what I want to do all my life. I didn’t need to
look somewhere else, I am actually doing it. But it took me a long time to get to that
point.” (p.7)
Reflection on Development: An Expanded, Evolving Self
Guy feels strongly that the crisis he related was a watershed between two
fundamentally different forms of self. He referred to his pre-crisis self as “my
previous incarnation” (p.5), implying an experience of rebirth through crisis. Rather
than settling on a new static identity, Guy’s sense of self is evolving and changing:
“I guess part of it is that the new Guy is constantly evolving, I know that I am not
defined by what I do.” (p.8)
Neil’s retraining in life coaching brings in a new focus on relationships and giving
that weren’t manifest clearly in the determined, resilient engineer of several years
before. One of new dimensions to Neil’s life is a spiritual side to himself:
“It came from within me; it is a spiritual part of me, a part that wants to understand
why we’re here. It sees my life as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. It’s
all about what I can do in the world, rather than what the world can do for me.” (p.13)
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