“Take away your opinion, and there is taken away the complaint.”
Glossary
The words we use, and what they actually mean.
We try to write so a first-time reader and a researcher can both use the same page. Each term below is explained in one plain sentence, then in full. If a word on this site is unclear, it should be here.
Transition
Also called: leaving service, resettlement, occupational transition
The moment you leave a role, or your role changes. It is an event with a date on it.
In AURIS work, transition means the practical change of status: discharge, retirement, medical exit, redundancy, promotion out of frontline duty, or a move into civilian employment. It is bounded in time and it is usually well supported, through resettlement, careers advice, housing and finance help. Transition is the trigger for what follows, not the whole of it.
What it is not: Transition is not the same as recovery, and finishing transition well does not mean identity questions are settled.
Identity adaptation
Also called: service provider identity adaptation, identity work
The longer process of working out who you are once the role that shaped you has ended or changed.
Identity adaptation is the ongoing adjustment of self-concept, belonging, purpose and daily behaviour after a trained role stops defining you. It has no fixed end date, it can begin years after the paperwork is signed, and it can be triggered by something small. AURIS studies it as service provider identity adaptation because the pattern shows up across military, police, fire, ambulance and NHS roles, not only in the armed forces.
What it is not: It is not a diagnosis, an illness, or a sign that someone has failed to move on.
Identity Performance Psychology
Also called: IPP
AURIS's proposed applied field of inquiry: how identity structure, disruption and adaptation may interact with regulation, behaviour and day-to-day functioning.
Identity Performance Psychology (IPP) is the name AURIS uses for a proposed applied field of inquiry examining how identity structure, disruption and adaptation interact with regulation, behaviour and sustainable functioning or performance. It draws on established identity, transition, self-regulation, career and behaviour-change science. AURIS operationalises these hypotheses through its five-pillar applied framework; the integrated sequence and its incremental effects are being tested rather than treated as established science.
What it is not: IPP is not clinical therapy, does not treat mental illness, and is not presented by AURIS as a recognised standalone academic discipline. It is a proposed applied field of inquiry that draws on established sciences while its integrated AURIS hypotheses are tested.
Trained-role identity fusion
An AURIS working description for cases where a trained occupational role appears highly central to, or fused with, a person's sense of self.
AURIS uses this phrase as a working hypothesis, not as a validated new psychological construct. Established research already covers identity fusion, role centrality, occupational identity and military identity. AURIS is testing the narrower question of whether the intensity and nature of occupational socialisation relate to those established constructs and whether they help explain disruption after role exit.
The AURIS Identity System
Also called: A U R I S, the five pillars
Five things people work through in order: Awareness, Understanding, Regulation, Identity and Stability.
AURIS is a five-pillar developmental framework. Awareness is noticing what is happening. Understanding is making sense of why. Regulation is managing state and response. Identity is rebuilding a workable sense of self. Stability is holding that steady across ordinary life. The pillars are sequential but not one-way, people revisit earlier pillars as circumstances change.
AURIS Membership
The AURIS membership: guided reflection, structured tools, community and support in one place.
The AURIS Membership is how the AURIS Identity System is delivered to individuals. It combines structured reflection, progress tracking, a moderated community and access to group sessions. It is a development system, not a clinical service, and it is designed to sit alongside any care someone is already receiving.
Coaching, not clinical
AURIS supports growth and everyday functioning. It does not diagnose or treat.
The coaching-not-clinical position defines the boundary of AURIS practice. Practitioners work on awareness, meaning, regulation habits, identity and stability. They do not assess, diagnose or treat mental health conditions, and they refer on where clinical support is indicated. This boundary is recorded in the research programme and in practitioner training.
Take the next gentle step.
Book a discovery call to speak with our team, or begin your AURIS Membership in your own time. There is no wrong starting point.