Understanding and Succeeding in Professional Transitions: The 5 Phases of Change According to Virginia Satir

Aug 11, 2025 Aurélie Kouéta Vie Professionnelle
Comprendre et réussir les transitions professionnelles : les 5 phases du changement selon Virginia Satir
All Metamorphoses, the Blog

Better support for professional transitions

Virginia Satir's 5-phase change model provides a valuable framework for supporting professional transitions: retraining, reorganization, or change management.

Understanding the impact of change with humanity and lucidity

In the professional world, every change—reorganization, retraining, or evolving practices—is a complex emotional journey. It often begins with enthusiasm, but quickly becomes confronted with fear, uncertainty, or mental overload, which slow down the initial momentum.

Virginia Satir, a leading figure in family therapy and NLP, identified five universal phases in any process of change. Understanding them gives you the means to navigate them with clarity and serenity.

The 5 Universal Phases of Change (according to Virginia Satir)

🔵Phase 1: The status quo: the reassuring comfort zone

Every organization relies on its routines and benchmarks. This reassuring framework provides stability, but it can also blind us to opportunities. This "cocoon" is the starting point for the process, but it can become a limitation if it becomes too rigid.

🔵Phase 2: Resistance: Fear of the Unknown

When a change is announced, 37% of employees show resistance , linked to a lack of confidence (41%), uncertainty (38%), or even a feeling of being excluded (23%). This reaction is not a refusal in itself, but a human mechanism aimed at preserving a threatened balance.

🔵Phase 3: Chaos: Loss of bearings

This often-dreaded phase corresponds to the collapse of old landmarks and the onset of a period of disorder. It is uncomfortable, but it also represents a fruitful moment: it is in this chaos that the mourning of the old takes place and new perspectives are born.

🔵Phase 4: Awareness, adaptation and active learning

Little by little, new benchmarks are being built. Teams experiment, test, exchange, and learn. The role of management and internal communication is then crucial : providing meaning, clarifying the steps, listening, and providing support help to allay fears and strengthen collective confidence.

🔵Phase 5: New status quo — stability restored

Once change is integrated, a new equilibrium emerges: more flexible, more agile, better prepared to evolve. This new state is not a simple return to initial stability, but a transformation enriched by lived experience.

Why this model speaks to businesses today

The figures underline the importance of this issue: only 43% of employees believe that their organization knows how to manage change effectively — compared to nearly 60% in 2019. In addition, 70% of transformation initiatives fail , often due to insufficient communication or poorly adapted support.

Added to this is a strong human dimension: 73% of employees affected by a transformation report experiencing moderate to high levels of stress. As for managers, 38% of those from companies with more than 1,000 employees say they would prefer not to have to manage transformations anymore, as "change fatigue" has become a reality.

These data demonstrate how essential it is to combine strategy, understanding of human mechanisms and adapted communication to successfully complete professional transitions.

The benefits of change support

To achieve change successfully, reconciling strategic lucidity and benevolence is not only possible, but essential.

I support professionals and businesses in their transitions using an approach centered on people and collective intelligence:

  • NLP sessions to calm resistance, restore meaning and strengthen confidence;
  • Psychometric tests to assess internal state, map strengths and inform strategic decisions;
  • An adapted communication strategy , based on listening and empathy, combined with workshops promoting cohesion and the development of well-being at work.

If you are going through a phase of change and would like to be supported in these challenges, I will be happy to support you.

Virginia Satir's model reminds us of a truth too often neglected in organizations: change is above all a human journey . Welcoming resistance, revealing resources and charting a course to emerge from chaos, while relying on active and caring communication, allows for the emergence of a reinvented, lasting and profoundly human stability.

What phase of change are you—or your team—in today?

See my video in French on Youtube

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Frida Kahlo : créer pour donner couleur et matière à l’indicible
  • Aurélie Kouéta
  • art-therapie
  • 0
Frida Kahlo : créer pour donner couleur et matière à l’indicible
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Danse-thérapie : quand bouger aide à libérer les émotions
  • Aurélie Kouéta
  • danse thérapie
  • 0
Dance therapy: when moving helps to release emotions
Dance therapy is not a classical dance class nor an artistic performance. It is a space for expression where movement becomes a language, a tool to release emotions, regain energy, and restore a deep connection with oneself. What is dance therapy? Dance therapy is based on a simple idea: the body retains memories of our experiences, our joys as well as our wounds. When words are lacking or seem insufficient, movement allows for another avenue of expression. It is not about learning steps, but about letting a spontaneous gesture emerge, adapted to each person, that reflects the inner state. This practice is used in many contexts: psychological support, personal development, stress management, but also in the search for creativity and vitality in daily life. How does it work in practice? A dance therapy session takes place in a supportive environment, either individually or in a group. It may include: 🔵A time for exchange to open the session, allowing feelings to be welcomed before giving way to movement. 🔵Gentle warm-ups to awaken the body and become aware of sensations; 🔵Free movement exercises, guided by music or silence, to express the emotions of the moment; 🔵Body games like mirroring (reflecting a partner's gestures) to strengthen the feeling of being recognized and connected; 🔵A time for integration where participants can share their feelings verbally or simply remain in silence. Each session is unique, as it adapts to the needs and experiences of those participating. Why movement helps to release emotions Research in neuroscience shows that movement acts directly on the nervous system. Moving allows to: 🔵Release physical tensions accumulated from stress; 🔵Stimulate well-being hormones like endorphins and dopamine, promoting natural calming; 🔵Give form to emotions (anger, sadness, joy, fear) in a symbolic and safe way; 🔵Strengthen the feeling of presence: returning to "the here and now" through the body rather than remaining trapped in the mind. According to the American Dance Therapy Association, this approach promotes both emotional health and physical vitality. The benefits of regular practice Dance therapy is accessible to everyone, regardless of age or physical condition. Its benefits, observed in many practices, include: 🔵A better emotional balance through body expression; 🔵A reduction of stress and anxiety through the release of tensions; 🔵A greater self-confidence, as the body becomes an ally rather than a constraint; 🔵A strengthening of social bonds in collective practices, thanks to sharing and mutual listening. My support: offering a liberating movement space I support individuals and groups who wish to explore dance therapy as a path to liberation and calming. Specifically, my sessions offer: 🔵A time for exchange and meditation, to set intentions, share one's current state, and establish a safe framework. 🔵Guided free movements to allow the body to express what sometimes cannot be said; 🔵Simple body rituals to regain grounding, energy, and serenity in daily life; 🔵Supportive exchange spaces to integrate bodily experiences and make them a lasting resource. Move to regain balance Dance therapy requires neither technique nor performance. It simply invites you to listen to your body, follow your rhythm, and let movement open new paths. Accessible to all, it reminds us of a truth too often forgotten: sometimes, to feel better, all it takes is to start moving. What if your next step became a gateway to more inner freedom?
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transition professionnelle
  • Aurélie Kouéta
  • Vie Professionnelle
  • 0
Ovid's Metamorphoses put to the test of 21st-century professional life
Nearly two thousand years ago, Ovid recounted in The Metamorphoses how gods, heroes, and humans underwent radical transformations: Daphne became a laurel tree, Narcissus changed into a flower, Arachne into a spider. Tales of loss and rebirth, of identity unraveling only to be reinvented. Even today, these stories resonate in our professional lives. A reorganization, a career change, or the arrival of artificial intelligence are nothing less than metamorphoses: sometimes brutal passages that shake up our bearings but also open the way to new definitions of ourselves.
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All Metamorphoses, the Blog