Near 2 million folks divorce annually within the U.S., and one in three folks who’ve been married have skilled a divorce. Divorce will be heartbreaking, financially troublesome and exhausting, however it might probably additionally include the motivation to reinvent your self, each personally and professionally.
Oona Metz, a Boston-based psychotherapist with 30 years of expertise serving to ladies navigate divorce, is the writer of the ebook Unhitched: The Important Divorce Information for Girls publishing in 2026. She shares that ladies are utilizing the pivotal private determination to break up as a launching level to upskill, change careers or begin purpose-driven companies, as an evolution of their identities.
Some folks search deeper which means, whereas others understand they only wish to have some enjoyable. For instance, Kristina Rajzer, primarily based in Slovenia, posted just lately on LinkedIn about how her personal divorce stripped down her life as a strategist and as a replacement, she discovered a brand new ardour—“I did the one factor that felt alive. I purchased a DJ set.”
Whether or not your new private reinvention interprets to a full profession trajectory pivot or whether or not you merely develop a brand new work-adjacent interest, divorce will be the inciting incident that pushes you towards the profession you’ve been dreaming of.
Utilizing emotional reinvigoration to go on your desires
For some, divorce pushes them to move out on their very own, whether or not it’s to grow to be a guide, contractor or freelancer or to construct their very own enterprise. “I used to be head of brand name advertising at The Knot after I was going via my divorce,” says Amanda Goetz, writer of Poisonous Grit: Have It All and (Truly) Love What You Have. “Put up-divorce I constructed and bought a VC-backed shopper packaged items enterprise, wrote a ebook and constructed a portfolio profession earlier than taking a brand new CMO place,” exhibiting that not all profession pivots after divorce transfer you into a wholly completely different subject, however slightly some push you to perform your particular person desires.
“There’s a ‘phoenix rising out of the ashes’ emotional bump that you just get while you come out of the emotional fog of divorce,” Goetz provides. “I additionally was capable of absolutely concentrate on my profession when my ex had the youngsters as a result of he now needed to take up the cognitive load of elevating them.”
Like Goetz, Metz shares that lots of the purchasers she’s labored with discover themselves these profession adjustments towards the top of the divorce course of. It is a combine of economic uncertainty and the emotional expenditure it takes to really get divorced. “So a number of instances folks have to attend until the mud settles,” she says.
Clearing out toxicity throughout profession reinvention for girls after divorce
Metz sees not solely ladies reinventing themselves, but additionally “renegotiating boundaries” of their lives and relationships. “Not solely the connection with their partner, but additionally their relationship with different folks—I’ve seen folks resolve to depart an abusive or crucial partner, after which they type of understand ‘Oh, my boss is like that too. I’m additionally going to depart my boss.’ They understand there’s a lot reduction in leaving an abusive marriage that they [ask] what different relationships they’re going to filter out of now too.”
Metz has particularly seen an increase of people that wish to transfer into serving to roles, akin to changing into therapists themselves and even teaching others via divorce. For instance, after her personal divorce, Olivia Howell, CEO of Contemporary Begins Divorce Registry, established a community of vetted, useful sources, which incorporates Metz, for these going via divorce. Doing so enabled her to construct a brand new profession for herself.
Altering work duties to accommodate emotional turmoil
It may be virtually unimaginable to keep up work duties in the course of the hardest days of divorce. It’s a wrestle Chedva Ludmir, CEO and founder at Contemplate Labs in Tel Aviv, is aware of properly. She says as somebody who’s part of an “extremely orthodox” spiritual group, she was primarily excommunicated when she acquired divorced.
“I didn’t anticipate this occurring to this extent, and as somebody who considers herself fairly resilient, I additionally didn’t anticipate how a lot this might have an effect on my work. Not solely did I discover it laborious to steer the company within the route I already plotted and strategized, I additionally discovered it subsequent to unimaginable to concentrate on strategic work,” she says. “Even after I ultimately did, my confidence was so shattered that I couldn’t pitch myself or the company to new purchasers and even turned down alternatives that arrived at my door, referring them to colleagues as a result of it was laborious for me to see myself as an professional, regardless of a few years of expertise and confirmed success.”
She needed to postpone the following season of her podcast, for instance, as a result of she couldn’t image speaking to an viewers whereas going via that. As an alternative, her profession modified in that she “targeted on very execution-oriented, tactical initiatives” for a time.
She calls her work life earlier than her reinvention a “very scary” time. She ultimately took time without work to work on a ebook and likewise birthed a brand new enterprise referred to as Contemplate Labs.
“For the primary time in my life, as somebody whose work has at all times been inherent to my sense of self, I misplaced curiosity in work—and on the time after I most wanted to make a dwelling.… Throughout that point, I did a number of work reminding myself that my id is greater than my profession and likewise greater than that point in my life.”
She’s not alone—analysis discovered that nearly 44% of individuals getting divorced reported a damaging impression of the expertise on their work. However the impression isn’t everlasting. The analysis additionally confirmed that work engagement and efficiency enhance a yr after the divorce.
Monetary independence after divorce
Whereas generally folks reinvent themselves out of a drive to pursue a ardour, others are merely making an attempt to make more cash at a time when monetary stability is prime of thoughts. Metz says she’s seen a number of ladies who’ve been making an attempt to determine how one can earn cash after being stay-at-home mothers previous to their divorces as a result of “ladies do lose financially throughout divorce.”
Whereas a few of them head again to highschool, Metz hopes ladies will think about the price of making a profession change, as generally extra education means a number of years with little to no revenue. “It’s important to actually be reasonable about how a lot it’s going to price you,” she says. “Do it’s worthwhile to return to highschool so as to obtain this or do it’s worthwhile to begin on the backside of the pile and work your manner up in a brand new profession? That may price cash.” She notes that self-employment can include its personal prices that folks ought to think about too.
A profitable life after divorce
Whereas it may appear a frightening highway forward, constructing a brand new profession path throughout or after divorce is probably not as arduous as you suppose.
Ludmir says, “I’ve gone via just a few profession pivots and reinventions previous to this one, however this one was the best and essentially the most embodied of all of them as a result of I didn’t have the added stress from a partner who doesn’t get what I do professionally. Additionally the laborious profession selections appeared a lot simpler as compared, and I’ve risen from the divorce somebody who trusts herself extra implicitly—making it simpler to discover this reinvention.”
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