Why Your Nervous System Treats Career Change as a Threat – and How to Move Through It Wisely

​Career change isn’t just a practical or strategic decision – it’s a biological one.

​​In this insightful session, Dr Nick Earley, Founder & Director of NavoMind, explores why even experienced, capable professionals can feel unsettled, foggy, or unexpectedly self-doubting when navigating career change in midlife.

​​For many professionals over 45, a career pivot brings more than updated CVs and new possibilities. It can quietly activate the nervous system as if something is at risk. The result? Overthinking, urgency, avoidance, loss of confidence, difficulty making decisions – or swinging between excitement and shutdown. These responses aren’t signs that you’re incapable. They’re signs your system is trying to protect you.

​​Drawing on doctoral-level clinical psychology and executive coaching, Nick will unpack what’s really happening beneath the surface during midlife transitions – and why career change can feel disproportionately threatening, even when it’s chosen and positive.

​​In this session, you’ll discover:

• ​​Why the nervous system treats career change as a threat – and how that subtly skews thinking, confidence and decision-making

• ​​How to tell the difference between fear that protects you and fear that keeps you stuck – with a simple way to identify which is present in real time

• ​​One practical nervous system reset you can use before key conversations or decisions, so you respond from steadiness rather than fight/flight/freeze

​​If you’re exploring what’s next and finding that the emotional side of change feels bigger than expected, this session will give you language, clarity and practical tools to move forward with greater calm and self-trust.

​​Because career change in midlife isn’t just about skills and strategy. It’s about identity, safety and the nervous system. And understanding that changes everything.