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Some clients walk into coaching with muscles already built for change.

They’ve switched jobs every few years and learned to pivot quickly.

They know the uncertainty and still step forward.

Others have been anchored in one company for 10, 15, or even 20 years.

They say, “I thought I’d be here forever,” or “I didn’t want to stay…but I did.”

And suddenly, they’re faced with a career transition. Not by choice, but by necessity.

That’s when fear and overwhelm take over.

The process of job searching isn’t necessarily different for these clients, but the mindset they bring into it is completely different.

When you’ve been “out of the game” for an extended period of time, the world of work feels alien.

Résumés look different.
Interviews feel foreign.
Networking through LinkedIn feels terrifying.

The resistance is real.

You're used to one culture, good or bad. And when you experience other cultures, it's dizzying...

What if I fail?
I don’t even know where to start.
What if this was my one shot and I missed it?

As career coaches, it’s easy to jump into strategies. 

Rewrite the résumé. Practice interview answers. Make a LinkedIn plan.

But if we don’t pause to meet the resistance itself, all those tactics fall flat.

So how do we help clients move through it?

Long-tenured clients often arrive with a story that says, “I’m rusty.”

Before you tweak a single bullet point on their résumé, rebuild their sense of agency.

You’re helping their nervous system remember what success feels like, so the next step doesn’t trigger a shutdown.

I’ll often ask them to revisit recent accomplishments—personal or professional—that involved change. It doesn’t even have to be career-related.

Then I walk them through it:

The point isn’t to trivialize the big career leap in front of them.

It’s to remind them: You’ve navigated change before. You survived it. You can do it again.

Anxiety thrives in vagueness.

When a client can only feel the threat, they’ll avoid action. Your job is to make the fog concrete enough to plan around, then smaller than it looked.

The second step in the process is scenario work.

Clients who resist change often carry a backpack full of “what ifs.”

What if I hate it?
What if I’m not qualified?
What if it all falls apart?

Instead of shutting those thoughts down, I’ll say: “Let’s talk it through.”

Script (coach):

“Let’s map a few quick scenarios so we can see them instead of feel them.”
 

A: Best-plausible. What would make it work? What support accelerates it?
B: Middle-messy. What gets wobbly? What buffers reduce risk?
C: Worst-credible. If it happens, what are our first two moves, and who do we call?

Saying it out loud turns monsters into tasks.

The unknown becomes thinkable; the thinkable becomes doable.

A note on boundaries: If panic, rumination, or past trauma dominates sessions, that’s therapy territory. Name it kindly and refer out. You can still coach the career process alongside licensed care.

Finally, it’s about pacing.

With a client who’s adapted every few years, you can often hand them tools and let them run.

With someone who’s been rooted in the same job for a long time, you go slower.

The goal is to help clients move steadily enough that each step builds confidence for the next.

For many clients, leaving a long-held role feels like stepping into foreign territory.

They may not have written a résumé in twenty years.

Networking feels like a closed club.

The job search has become digital, fast-moving, and often impersonal—precisely the opposite of what they’ve known.

No wonder the fear shows up as overwhelm or hesitation.

Some points to consider:

🔹 How do you approach clients who’ve been in one place for decades?
🔹 What small wins can you surface to rebuild their confidence in change?
🔹 How do you hold space for resistance—not as a flaw to fix, but as a human response to uncertainty?

This is where coaches make the biggest difference.

By slowing the pace, breaking the process into smaller steps, and celebrating early wins, you give clients proof they can adapt.

The job search tools matter, but the real work is helping them reconnect with their own capacity to learn and adjust.

When clients experience that shift, they carry more than just a new job. 

They carry forward the knowledge that they can navigate change again. 

That memory of resilience is what sustains them through the next transition.

That’s the kind of coaching that stays with people long after the sessions end.

See you next week,

Heather

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