Midlife isn’t a crisis—it’s a crossroads.

Hosted by experiential psychologist Nelson Pahl, Ph.D., Good Grief, John Doe helps midlife men reclaim identity, reestablish purpose, and reinvent themselves after loss—loss of youth, energy, roles, relationships, and/or meaning.

Each episode blends practical tools, narrative therapy, and expressive practices to help you process grief, shed old identities, and step into your new self.

In this episode, Part 1, Nelson explains how midlife is really a grief event for a man, and he offers a simple practice to start addressing this midlife grief.

Topics in this Episode

• The Old Map No Longer Leads the Way (0:49)
• Midlife is a Grief Event (1:19)
• What We Lose in Midlife…But Rarely Admit (1:37)
• We Give Language to the Ache (2:11)
• Your Practice: Write an Elegy for What’s Missing (2:33)
• Midlife Elegy Prompts to Help You (3:15)
• An Example of How You Might Frame It All (3:46)

Healing Links

28-Day Challenge: Resurrection Camp

Supporting Links

EBSCO Research: Midlife Crisis Statistics & Definitions
Academic Article: Jungian Individuation Theory
Professional Article: “The Grief of Midlife Crisis”
Academic Resource: Masculinity and Grief

Next Episode:Men Over 50: Sensory Mapping for Calming Midlife Angst (Good Grief, John Doe mini-course - Part 2)

About the Host

Nelson Pahl, Ph.D. is an experiential psychologist that helps midlife men reclaim identity and reinvent themselves through his proprietary approaches, including Resurrection Camp, the Six Stones Retreat Arc, and his Legacy Lab. He is also author of the upcoming book, The Upside of Gauguin Syndrome.