A calm, contained one-to-one process for adults navigating transitions
My work sits at the meeting point of psychology, psychotherapy, coaching and contemplative practice. After 35 years in the profession, I have come to see that the people who come to me are generally capable and often outwardly very successful. What they are finding is that the strategies that built the first half of their life no longer work well for them, and this has thrown them into a time of deep contemplation and questioning.
The work I offer is designed to meet those questions - calmly, with discernment, and without rushing. The work is online, one-to-one, time-limited, and oriented around clarity and the creation of an authentic way forward.
The Work
The core of the work
Across every area that follows, the underlying intention is the same: to strengthen your capacity to meet life as it actually is in a way that works well for you.
This involves developing a steadier internal centre which enables you to listen more deeply to what is asking to emerge in your life now. This centre is one that equips you to think, feel and act in a clearer and wiser manner, thus enabling you to create a new life for yourself.
The approach is not formulaic. It is shaped session by session, around what is true for you.
The Transitions I Work With
Most of the people who come to me arrive at a moment of transition — a passage from one phase of life to the next, where the old map no longer fits, and a new one has not yet formed.
Three transitions in particular recur in my work:
Loss of Direction in Midlife
Midlife is stage in which the ambitions, identities and motivations that drove the first half of life lose their conviction.
Outwardly, things still appear to work.
But inwardly, something has shifted, and a more honest direction is asking to emerge.
Life Transitions Beyond Midlife
In the later stages of midlife and beyond, we all have experiences that require a new orientation to be found.
There may be late changes in career, painful bereavements, retirement, the empty nest syndrome, the onset of serious illness, the challenges of downsizing or preparation for the last stage of our lives.
Mentoring Young Adults
A distinct strand of the work for thoughtful young adults between roughly 18 and 35 who are navigating early-adult anxiety, identity, direction, and the demands of an unusually difficult moment in the world.
The Capacities the Work Develops
Within our work, we may or may not draw on one or more of the three specific capacities that I also offer as standalone areas of focus.
Body-Based Intuition and Embodied Decision-Making
An integrated way of making complex decisions — one that includes careful thought, emotion and the felt-sense of the body, rather than analysis alone.
This method shines when overthinking fails to arrive at a clear conclusion.
Meditation, Mindfulness and Presence
A model of meditation and mindfulness that not only enables greater focus, awareness and relaxation, but also is one that can be deepened to discover the peace and presence of our natural mind.
Finding and Living Your Unique Spiritual Path
Non-prescriptive, non-ideological spiritual mentoring for adults who are spiritually curious but wary of dogma.
Enabling deep meaning and purpose.
"It is very rare to meet as realistic, competent, intuitive and clinically experienced a professional as he is.
I can recommend Bill Petrie without any reservation."
Oliver Schubbe, Trauma Specialist, Germany
Who this is and is not for
This work is suited to thoughtful, reflective adults who are functioning outwardly but ready to engage seriously with what is shifting inside.
It is not crisis intervention, trauma processing, motivational coaching, or performance optimisation.
If anything here resonates
You are welcome to book a free 20-minute exploratory conversation.
This is a calm, practical discussion — not an assessment or obligation.
We can clarify what brings you, check whether this way of working suits your situation, and decide together whether continuing feels appropriate.