Thoughtful active older couple walking outdoors

Your career may be ending. Your purpose isn’t.

Developing a Mindset for a Fulfilling Retirement

Most people prepare financially for retirement. Far fewer prepare for the emotional and psychological changes that come with leaving work behind.

Live Life Purposefully is a three-part live online seminar series that helps you approach retirement with greater clarity, confidence, connection, and purpose.

Led by Sarah Hiller-Bersson, LCSWClinical psychotherapist with 15 years of experience working with retired seniors.

Explore the Program
Three live weekly seminarsOne private 60-minute sessionSecure Stripe checkoutCollaborations with Universities, Medical Centers, and Organizations Welcome

Introduction Video

A Message From Sarah

In this short video, Sarah explains why retirement is not only a financial transition, but also a psychological, emotional, relational, and identity-based transition.

Placeholder: replace this poster and video embed with Sarah’s final introduction video before launch.

Participant reflecting in a notebook near a bright window

The Overlooked Side of Retirement

Your Finances May Be Ready for Retirement. Are You?

Work often provides more than income. It can quietly organize the day, reinforce identity, create regular contact with others, and offer a felt sense of usefulness.

When employment ends, several sources of stability may change at once. That shift can be meaningful and welcome, while still asking more of you than expected.

StructureIdentitySocial contactResponsibilityAchievementRoutinePurposeA sense of contribution

Who am I outside of my career?

What will give structure and meaning to my days?

How will retirement affect my closest relationships?

What do I want this next chapter of life to become?

Older adult reflecting with a notebook at home

Three-Part Program

Your Three-Part Journey

01

Retirement as a Transition in Identity

Retirement is more than the end of a career—it is a transition in identity. In this session, participants will explore how work-related roles, responsibilities, accomplishments, and relationships may have contributed to their sense of identity and self-worth. Through guided reflection, participants will begin identifying how these influences have shaped their inner identity, how they may continue to define themselves beyond employment and how this impacts one's mental health.

Key ideas

  • Identity beyond a job title
  • The relationship between work and self-worth
  • Roles, responsibilities, and personal meaning
  • Recognizing strengths and qualities that remain after employment ends
  • 60-minute live seminar
  • 15–30 minute live Q&A
  • Zoom delivery
  • Recording access under the existing policy
  • One replay permitted

02

Building New Sources of Meaning and Engagement

This session focuses on developing new sources of engagement, connection, meaning, and fulfillment. Participants will explore how relationships, interests, community involvement, contribution, and new life roles can support a renewed sense of purpose. Together, the first two sessions are designed to help participants approach retirement with greater confidence, direction, and optimism.

Key ideas

  • Developing new sources of engagement
  • Drawing upon existing and new relationships
  • Exploring meaningful roles and forms of contribution
  • Building confidence, direction, and optimism
  • Creating new sources of fulfillment
  • 60-minute live seminar
  • 15–30 minute live Q&A
  • Zoom delivery
  • Recording access under the existing policy
  • One replay permitted

03

Meaning, Purpose, and Designing Your Next Chapter

The final session combines reflection on meaning, purpose, connection, and practical life design. Participants will identify the activities, relationships, contributions, routines, and experiences that support fulfillment and emotional wellbeing, then translate those insights into a realistic plan for retirement. The session will conclude with practical next steps for creating structure, connection, purpose, and direction in life after work.

Key ideas

  • Meaning and purpose
  • Relationships and social connection
  • Daily structure and healthy routines
  • Personal goals and contribution
  • Turning reflection into an actionable retirement plan
  • 60-minute live seminar
  • 15–30 minute live Q&A
  • Zoom delivery
  • Recording access under the existing policy
  • One replay permitted

Hopeful Reframing

Retirement Is Not an Ending. It Is an Opportunity to Live More Intentionally.

With thoughtful preparation, retirement can create space for exploration, contribution, community, and a renewed relationship with what matters most. This course can be taken at either the pre- and post- retirement stages in life.

Retirement is a transition to be entered into with a perspective of growth, opportunity, meaning, and purpose.

Personal growth
Stronger relationships
New routines
Contribution
Creativity
Curiosity
Service
Community
Meaning
A renewed sense of purpose

Clinically Informed Approach

A Psychological Approach to Retirement Transitions

Live Life Purposefully draws on established psychological concepts and practical clinical strategies to help participants better understand the retirement transition and respond to it intentionally.

Sarah translates clinically informed ideas into approachable exercises, discussions, and practical steps that participants can apply in everyday life.

The series is designed to go beyond ordinary retirement coaching by drawing from psychological theory, therapeutic strategies, and established constructs related to identity, adjustment, values, relationships, routine, meaning, and purpose.

This program is educational and psychologically informed. It should not be read as making guaranteed clinical outcomes, medical claims, or claims that the program is clinically proven.

Identity developmentRole transitionMeaning and purposeAdjustment to major life changesValues clarificationEmotional resilienceRelationship dynamicsBehavioral activationRoutine formationSocial connectionSelf-reflectionGoal development

Understand the Transition

Recognize the emotional, relational, and identity-related changes that may accompany retirement.

Reconnect With What Matters

Clarify the values, relationships, activities, and forms of contribution that make us feel fulfilled.

Create a Practical Next Chapter

Develop realistic routines, goals, and strategies for building a purposeful life after employment.

What Is Included

Everything Included in Your Enrollment

The program includes three weekly live Zoom seminars, with each seminar followed by a 15–30 minute question-and-answer period. Choose from available seminar months during enrollment.

  • Three weekly live Zoom seminars
  • Seminar month options
  • Three live question-and-answer periods
  • Clinically informed education and guided discussion
  • Practical reflection exercises
  • Access to each seminar recording after the live session
  • One permitted replay of each recording
  • One private 60-minute individual session with Sarah
  • 15% off future individual sessions with Sarah
  • Secure online payment through Stripe

Complete Program

$295

Three group seminars, live Q&A, recordings under the stated policy, and one private individual session.

How Recording Access Works

Participants receive access to the recording after each live seminar. Each recording may be viewed one additional time. Recording access is intended for the registered participant only and may not be shared, copied, downloaded, or redistributed.

View protected portal placeholder
Sarah Hiller-Bersson, LCSW
Licensed Clinical Social Worker15 Years of Clinical ExperienceClinical Social Work Supervisor CertificationBeck Institute CBT Program CertificationEMDR CertificationExperience Working With Retired Seniors

Meet Sarah

Meet Sarah Hiller-Bersson, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Clinical Psychotherapist

Sarah Hiller-Bersson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and clinical psychotherapist with 15 years of experience working with retired seniors.

Sarah has identified the unique challenges and obstacles that can arise during the transition to retirement and draws upon psychological theory to better understand the underlying factors that make this life stage so complex. By translating psychological insights into practical, real-life strategies, she has developed an approach that helps individuals navigate the personal and emotional challenges of retirement, adapt to this new phase of life, and build a fulfilling, purposeful, and meaningful next chapter.

Sarah has experience leading seminars through the University of Arizona’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program, presenting weekly interactive lecture series at the YWCA of Northern New Jersey, and contributing regularly to the Institute for New Dimensions’ programming and lecture series.

Her approach is warm, thoughtful, practical, and grounded in clinically informed psychological theories, established psychological constructs, and respect for each participant’s individual experience.

Individual Session

Personalize What You Learned

After the seminar series, you will have the opportunity to meet privately with Sarah for a 60-minute individual session. This session is included in the program fee.

This session gives you the opportunity to explore your personal retirement transition, reflect on the themes that were most relevant to you, and identify practical next steps.

Participants who continue working with Sarah after the included session receive 15% off future individual sessions.

The included individual session is part of the program. Any future sessions are optional and billed separately.

Who This Is For

Is Live Life Purposefully Right for You?

Expect to retire within the next several years
Have recently retired
Feel uncertain about life after work
Want to preserve a sense of identity and purpose
Are adjusting to changes in routine or relationships
Want a psychologically informed approach
Prefer a structured small-group experience
Want practical tools rather than financial advice
Want support designing a meaningful next chapter

This program does not provide financial, investment, tax, or legal advice.

Testimonials

Participant Experiences

“Sample testimonial — replace with approved participant feedback.”

Sample testimonial - replace with approved participant feedback that accurately reflects the participant's experience.

First name

General location

Optional photograph placeholder

Consent confirmation pending

“Sample testimonial — replace with approved participant feedback.”

Sample testimonial - replace with approved participant feedback that accurately reflects the participant's experience.

First name

General location

Optional photograph placeholder

Consent confirmation pending

“Sample testimonial — replace with approved participant feedback.”

Sample testimonial - replace with approved participant feedback that accurately reflects the participant's experience.

First name

General location

Optional photograph placeholder

Consent confirmation pending

Placeholder testimonials only. All testimonials must be genuine, accurate, and used with written permission.

Pricing and Enrollment

Begin Your Next Chapter With Greater Clarity

A structured, clinically informed seminar series for adults who want to prepare for the personal side of life after work.

Complete Program

$295

  • Three weekly live Zoom seminars
  • Seminar month options
  • Live Q&A
  • Recordings with one replay
  • One private 60-minute session
  • 15% off future individual sessions

Secure payment through Stripe. Card details are handled by Stripe Checkout and are not stored by this website.

Flexible Seminar Times

Seminars are offered on Sunday mornings and during weekday lunch hours.

FAQ

Common Questions

No. The program focuses on the emotional, psychological, relational, identity-based, and practical transition into retirement. It does not provide financial, tax, investment, or legal advice.

Retire From Work—Not From Purpose.

Give yourself the same thoughtful preparation for the personal side of retirement that you have given to the financial side.

Secure payment through Stripe

Live Life Purposefully is an educational program focused on retirement transition, personal development, and psychologically informed strategies. The group seminar is not psychotherapy, medical treatment, crisis care, financial advice, legal advice, or a substitute for individualized mental-health treatment. Participation in the group program does not automatically establish an ongoing therapist-client relationship. If a participant is experiencing a mental-health emergency, they should contact local emergency services or an appropriate crisis resource.