Are you in the midst of a midlife transition, grappling with big questions about purpose, change, and self-discovery?
For this week’s episode, cohost Debbie Sorensen celebrates her 50th birthday with a discussion on the transformative period of midlife with her friend, Dr. Meg McKelvie.
A period rich with psychological shifts, existential questions, and challenges in finding deeper meaning, they get into acceptance and commitment therapy, emotional, psychical and cognitive changes, ways to overcome people-pleasing habits, and much much more.
With practical exercises and writing practices, this episode is a gift to anyone navigating midlife transitions and relationships, offering insight, reflection, and a path toward deeper understanding and fulfilling connections. We hope you enjoy this heartfelt and poignant conversation!
Listen and Learn
- Opportunities that midlife brings for deeper understanding and transformation
- Confronting body changes and the aging process
- How your relationships can become deeper in midlife; letting go of surface-level bonds and embracing genuine honesty and shared experiences
- The myth of the midlife crisis and how, contrary to what stereotypes lead us to believe, it frequently involves a sharp internal existential shift rather than a dramatic upheaval
- Living with unanswered questions and learning to sit with the discomfort of uncertainty
- Ways you can cultivate a personal space that nurtures self-reflection and self-sufficiency
- The lessons that regret can teach us
- The value of sitting with challenging emotions such as anger and grief, and how these feelings can provide critical insights into your life
- The difference between body neutrality and body positivity and how stepping back from the internal debate about your body can lead to a more peaceful relationship with yourself
Resources:
- Meg’s website: https://www.drmegmckelvie.com/
- Link to the “Soul-Searching Questions” handout on Meg’s website and Debbie’s website.
- More writing resources from Meg and Debbie:
- Meg’s writing workshops: https://www.drmegmckelvie.com/workshopsgroups
- Debbie’s Instagram for journaling prompts: https://www.instagram.com/drdebbiesorensen/
- Debbie’s Guided Journaling substack: https://guidedjournaling.substack.com/
- 345. Writing for Personal Growth with Maureen Murdock
- A Substack essay Debbie wrote on her 50th birthday
- A commentary on the Surgeon General’s recent advisory on parental stress, by co-hosts Debbie and Emily, and former co-host Yael Schonburn!
- Books mentioned in the episode:
- Finding Meaning In the Second Half of Life: https://bookshop.org/a/30734/9781592402076
- The Heroine’s Journey: https://bookshop.org/a/30734/9781611808308
About Meg Mckelvie
Dr. Meg McKelvie is a therapist, consultant and trainer specializing in acceptance and commitment therapy, and a co-founder of Impact Psychology Colorado. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Prior to her work in private practice, she was a psychologist in the family program at the Rocky Mountain VA Medical Center, and she served as a nationally recognized trainer and consultant in cognitive processing therapy for trauma in the VA healthcare system. She’s committed to decreasing suffering through a lens of act and understanding our yearning to belong. And she leads writing groups called Belonging from the Inside Out
About Debbie Sorensen
Dr. Debbie Sorensen is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Denver, Colorado, who has a PhD from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Anthropology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She specializes in working with individual adults who are experiencing chronic stress and burnout. In addition to being one of the co-hosts of Psychologists Off the Clock, she is the author of ACT for Burnout: Recharge, Reconnect, and Transform Burnout with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and co-author of ACT Daily Journal: Get Unstuck and Live Fully with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
Related episodes:
- 199. Belonging From the Inside Out with Meg McKelvie
- 345. Writing for Personal Growth with Maureen Murdock
- 315. Hot & Bothered: Menopause with Jancee Dunn
- 92. Marriage in Midlife: The Rough Patch with Daphne de Marneffe
- 291. Finding Freedom From Regret with Robert Leahy
- 257. The Gift of Being Ordinary with Ron Siegel
- 242. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management with Oliver Burkeman
- 351. You Only Die Once with Jodi Wellman
- 274. Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood with Satya Doyle Byock
- 138. Exploring Existence and Purpose: Existentialism with Robyn Walser
- 116. Building a Meaningful, Values-based Life with Jenna LeJeune
- 285. What Do You Want Out of Life? Values Fulfillment Theory with Valerie Tiberius
