I Am Excited to Take the Next Fork in My Life Path But I’m Not Calling it Retirement Yet

Photo by Jens Lelie on Unsplash

Many people have trouble deciding when or whether to retire. After years of working as a psychotherapist where I helped many people with issues around finding or losing work, I know how important a person’s work is and how big a decision to stop working can be. Working is such an integral part of life that without it we often flounder, wondering who we are without that title or paycheck or group of colleagues. It is a profoundly important decision that many people my age are thinking and writing about.

So, I want to offer my two cents.

I have worked as a psychotherapist in various hospitals, clinics, and private settings for the past thirty years. I am really glad I went to school in my 30s and earned an advanced degree to do this work. As promised, it was challenging, fulfilling, and in great demand. I chose a second career that was not physically tiring with the idea that I could be a therapist long after my body aged out of more physically demanding careers. All of that has been true.

Now, instead of being physically challenged, I find myself exhausted by the weight of other people’s emotional problems and the stress of being responsible for them (not to mention all the paperwork that accompanies this kind of responsibility). A few years ago…