Welcome to Midlife Becoming

I used to think I had it figured out.

Twenty-five years as a school psychologist. Ten years of working with children and families in some of their hardest times. A career built on helping other people navigate their hardest moments. A life that looked, from the outside, exactly like it was supposed to.

Then midlife arrived and handed me my own reckoning.

My mom got sick. My kids grew up. The roles that had defined me for decades started shifting- and in that quiet space that opened up, I had to ask myself a question I’d been avoiding for years:

Who am I when I’m not taking care of everyone else?

I didn’t have a clear answer. I still don’t. But I started writing, and that is how Midlife Becoming was born.

This space is for you if:

  • You’re somewhere in the middle of your own becoming, not on the other side, not with all the answers.

  • You’ve felt the particular grief of letting go of who you used to be.

  • You’re navigating an empty nest, a career shift, a life that looks different from what you planned.

You’re done waiting for permission to want more.

What you expect here:

Honest writing about grief, transformation, and reinvention. No toxic positivity. No pretending it’s all figured out. Just real, warm, sometimes funny, always true writing from someone who is living this right alongside you.

I’m also a graduate student in William & Mary’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program, which means I bring both the lived experience and the training to understand what’s actually happening when life cracks open and asks you to become something new.

I’m so glad you found your way here.

This is a gathering place for women who aren’t done yet. Pull up a chair. The tide is coming in.

Barb

Subscribe below and come become with me.

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Subscribe to Barb | The Midlife Becoming

School psych. 30+ years watching people navigate impossible transitions — then midlife handed me my own. I write about reinvention, transformation, empty nesting, emotional wellness, & becoming for women who aren’t done yet. 🌊

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