Identity, Purpose, and Transition Coaching
Something changed, and the thing that used to organize your life stopped working.
A career ran its natural course, or stopped fitting, or ended before you were ready. A relationship ended. The children grew up. You got further down a road you never consciously chose.
Most people respond by looking for the next thing to do. That is the second question.
The first one is harder. What are you built around? Almost nobody has ever been asked that.
WHY
I have left more than one identity behind.
Special Operations. The Philadelphia Police Department. Counterterrorism, as an Intelligence Officer and Division Chief with the ODNI’s National Counterterrorism Center.
Each of them ended, and I was still here.
What caught me off guard was not losing the work. It was finding out how much of me the work had been holding up. You hand back the badge, the clearance, the call sign, and what is left is a person you have not spent much time with.
Nobody prepares you for that part. You get a handshake, a plaque, and a calendar with nothing in it, and everyone expects you to know what comes next.
I found my way back. It took longer than it needed to, mostly because I tried to do it alone.
That is why I do this work. So no one has to find their way back alone.
WHAT THIS IS
One on one.
Coaching for people in the middle of a change they did not plan for, or one they chose and cannot find themselves in. We work out what you are built around, put it into words you can use, and build forward from there.
Virtual worldwide. In person around Richmond, Virginia.
HOW IT WORKS
It begins with a question you have probably never been asked properly.
Not what you do. Not how you do it. Why.
We start with your personal story instead of your goals, because the reason you do the things you do is already in your story: the purpose or belief that has been driving you all along, underneath everything you care about.
You leave with that reason written down in one sentence, in your own language. It works as a decision tool. Once you know it, the question of whether something is right for you stops being a feeling and becomes something you can check.
01
Stories
Two hours. You talk. I take notes and we collaborate to identify themes.
02
The thread
Before the session ends, we draft your statement together and refine the wording until it sounds like you. You leave with it written down.
03
Use
We put it to work against whatever decision is actually in front of you right now.
Special Operations combat veteran. Former police officer, Philadelphia Police Department. Intelligence Officer and Division Chief with the ODNI’s National Counterterrorism Center. Master’s in Diplomacy. Bachelor’s in Strategic Studies and Defense Analysis. Harvard Executive Certificate in Public Leadership. Trained in Relational Life Therapy Coaching and Jungian Coaching.
I write about this regularly.
ALSO FROM JIM HAMILTON
The Tactical Return
A three-week group program for veterans, law enforcement, first responders and executives. Relational coaching on the emotional armor that kept you effective under pressure, what it costs with the people closest to you, and how to recognize the patterns that damage relationships so you can choose a different response in the moment. It has its own structure and its own home.
NEXT STEP
Start with a conversation.
Fifteen minutes by phone, no cost. You share what is going on for you. I tell you whether I am the right person for it. If I am not, I will say so and point you toward someone better.
Newsletter
The Way Back
A Sunday letter on identity, purpose, and what was underneath the role the whole time.