Identity Foundations

Watch this before you begin

Identity can become fused with rank, role, competence and belonging without us noticing it happening. Watch this conversation first and listen for the difference between what somebody did and who they understood themselves to be. That distinction is the foundation for the work that follows.

The pathways it belongs to

• Part of the Life and Role Change pathway: Changed career, made redundant or retired, and you still do not feel like yourself?

A pathway is a suggested order, not a requirement. This course can be taken on its own.

About this course

Work with awareness, understanding, regulation, identity and stability as flexible prompts. Use a constructed example to connect an accurate description with a manageable action.

Why this matters

The five prompts organise reflection; they do not establish a diagnosis, a universal pathway or a promised outcome.

Course curriculum

5 lessons. The lesson content itself opens once you start the course.

1. Lesson 1 · about 15 minutes

   Naming what changed

   Several things can change at once, but they do not all need the same response. This lesson helps you describe a change, identify the practical need it creates and choose what deserves attention first.

   • Describe gains, losses, continuities and unknowns in an ordinary fictional change.
   • Choose one practical priority using urgency, impact and available support, rather than the number of items on a list.

2. Lesson 2 · about 15 minutes

   The role and the person who held it

   A role can help develop capabilities and provide the authority, resources and relationships needed to use them. When the setting changes, it is useful to distinguish what the person did from what the role made possible. This lesson helps you describe one capability with evidence, check its previous supporting conditions and consider what needs adapting now.

   • Describe one capability using a concrete example, while separating it from formal authority and supporting conditions.
   • Identify an adaptation, permission or resource needed in a new setting without assuming that capacity or priorities remain unchanged.

3. Lesson 3 · about 15 minutes

   Capacity for hard days

   Capacity includes recognising limits and knowing when a practical change or support is needed. A pause may provide an opportunity to consider a reply, but the circumstances still need attention. This lesson helps you choose or decline an optional pause and identify a response to the actual difficulty.

   • Choose or decline a tolerable pause in a fictional situation and state when to stop.
   • Distinguish an optional pause from the practical change or support the situation may require.

4. Lesson 4 · about 15 minutes

   A self you recognise

   A self-description can be useful when it reflects what a person has actually done and leaves room for change. It does not need to be a permanent label. This lesson helps you support a modest description with an example, consider contrary evidence and revise the wording or approach without treating it as a judgement of worth.

   • Write a modest self-description supported by a specific current example.
   • Use contrary evidence to revise the description or identify an adaptation, while recognising what the evidence cannot establish.

5. Lesson 5 · about 15 minutes

   Acting from a steady place

   A plan may need to change when real circumstances interrupt it. Starting again can involve a smaller action, a different opportunity, practical support or a decision to pause the routine. This lesson helps you plan one feasible restart without turning an interruption into a judgement about identity or commitment.

   • Plan a restart after a fictional disruption using a feasible cue, minimum action and fallback.
   • Identify a resource, support need and review point without assuming that a restart will succeed or establish a habit.

After you finish

Review your practical priority, capability example, optional pause choice, self-description and restart plan. Adapt them when circumstances or evidence changes. You can continue with a course that fits your needs; the pathway is a suggestion rather than a requirement.

Course progression

1. Foundation→
2. Applied→
3. Practitioner

AURIS CORE 5 of 7. Applied identity reconstruction: translate what changed, separate role from person, and build a self-description that can travel across contexts.

Related courses

• Suggested preparation

  Introduction to AURIS

  Course details

• Suggested next course

  Emotional Regulation

  Course details

Research and evidence

Military-to-civilian cultural transition meta-synthesis PMID 37490333; veteran identity/meaning/purpose scoping review PMID 42651563; recent qualitative identity-redefinition study PMID 42048106. The five AURIS pillars are an integrative design hypothesis and are not claimed to be a proven necessary or optimal sequence.