Gemma Gardner

Knowledge Hub writing

29 published pieces, about 43 minutes of reading in total.

• Research

  I didn't start researching identity. I started trying to help people.

  A first person account of how a medical discharge in 2014, a self funded CIC in 2015 and a woodworking project in Liverpool in 2017 turned into the questions now being asked through Identity After the Uniform.

  6 minute read · published 27 August 2026

• Psychology

  Service Provider Identity Adaptation

  Service provider identity adaptation is the process of rebuilding a coherent sense of self after exit from, or change within, a trained role in a high-pressure service delivery occupation.

  6 minute read · published 10 August 2026

• Research

  The Identity Gap in Service Leaver Support: Why It Matters

  Practical resettlement support is comprehensive, yet our review of UK transition guidance found very little explicit discussion of identity as a psychological process. This article explains what we examined, what we found, and where identity adaptation fits alongside existing support.

  4 minute read · published 10 February 2026

• White Papers

  White Paper 0, From Transition to Service Provider Identity Adaptation

  A conceptual position paper reframing the Identity After the Uniform research programme: transition is the trigger, but the phenomenon under study is identity adaptation after a trained, high-pressure service role.

  2 minute read

• White Papers

  Identity After the Uniform

  Emerging findings from the first stage of the Identity After the Uniform research programme, a qualitative study of identity reconstruction after military service and other identity-defining roles.

  1 minute read

• Foundations

  What is Identity?

  Identity is the stable sense of who you are across time, roles and relationships. It shapes how you think, decide, regulate emotion and connect with others.

  1 minute read

• Foundations

  What is Occupational Transition?

  Occupational transition is the structured change of a person's primary role, leaving the military, the NHS, emergency services, elite sport or another high-identity occupation.

  1 minute read

• Foundations

  What is Identity Performance Psychology?

  Identity Performance Psychology (IPP) is the field that studies how a stable sense of self enables sustained performance, regulation and wellbeing across high-demand roles.

  1 minute read

• Foundations

  What is the AURIS Identity System?

  AURIS is a five-pillar framework, Awareness, Understanding, Regulation, Identity, Stability, designed to support people through identity disruption and occupational transition.

  1 minute read

• Foundations

  Why Identity Matters

  Identity sits beneath wellbeing, performance, recovery and belonging. When we ignore it, support stalls. When we centre it, change becomes sustainable.

  1 minute read

• Research

  Parliamentary Evidence Review

  A consolidated evidence review on identity in occupational transition, prepared for UK policy audiences.

  1 minute read

• Research

  Published Papers

  AURIS supporting publications on sustainable change, Identity Performance Psychology and behavioural change through structured awareness.

  1 minute read

• Research

  Identity After the Uniform

  An applied research strand focused on what happens to identity when a uniformed career ends, across military, police, fire and ambulance services.

  1 minute read

• Research

  Research Methods

  How AURIS approaches research: mixed-methods, practitioner-informed, transparent about limits, and committed to open archiving.

  1 minute read

• Research

  Pilot Programmes

  AURIS pilot programmes test the framework in real-world settings with veterans, emergency-service personnel, NHS staff and partner organisations.

  1 minute read

• Psychology

  Social Identity

  Social identity is the part of the self that comes from belonging to groups, units, teams, services, professions, families.

  1 minute read

• Psychology

  Role Exit

  Role exit is the structured process of leaving a role that has shaped the self. It has predictable stages and predictable risks.

  1 minute read

• Psychology

  Self-Concept

  Self-concept is the organised set of beliefs you hold about yourself. It is updateable, and that is the work of transition.

  1 minute read

• Psychology

  Behaviour Change

  Sustainable behaviour change is identity change. Surface-level change rarely lasts; identity-level change reshapes what feels normal.

  1 minute read

• Psychology

  Regulation

  Regulation is the set of skills and habits that keep the nervous system, emotions and attention workable under pressure.

  1 minute read

• Psychology

  Belonging

  Belonging is a physiological resource. Without it, regulation and recovery are harder. With it, they become possible.

  1 minute read

• Psychology

  Purpose

  Purpose is the felt sense that what you do matters. It is rebuilt deliberately, not waited for.

  1 minute read

• Occupational Transition

  Military

  Leaving military service is one of the most studied, and most under-supported, identity transitions in the UK.

  1 minute read

• Occupational Transition

  Emergency Services

  Police, fire and ambulance personnel hold identities shaped by exposure, responsibility and trust. Transition out of these roles needs more than career advice.

  1 minute read

• Occupational Transition

  NHS

  NHS staff hold deeply vocational identities. Transition, within roles, out of roles, or out of the service, is identity work, not only career work.

  1 minute read

• Occupational Transition

  Elite Sport

  Retirement from elite sport is one of the sharpest identity transitions a person can face. The body changes, the calendar empties, and the audience moves on.

  1 minute read

• Occupational Transition

  Medical Discharge

  Medical discharge is rarely chosen, often sudden, and almost always carries an identity shock alongside the medical one.

  1 minute read

• Occupational Transition

  Retirement

  Retirement is an identity event before it is a financial one. Without identity work, the freedom can quickly become drift.

  1 minute read

• Occupational Transition

  Military Families

  Military families carry the identity work of service alongside the serving person. Their transitions deserve the same care.

  1 minute read