When Certainty Fades, Purpose Emerges: Inside Lisa Best’s Mission to Help Women Rediscover Identity in Midlife
Success stories often follow familiar arcs. Career milestones, family life, and long-term plans can create the impression of certainty. Yet for many individuals, there comes a moment when those carefully constructed narratives begin to shift, when identity and purpose feel less defined than before. In that uncertainty, questions can surface with startling clarity: “Who am I without this role? What do I enjoy? What comes next?”
It is within those crossroads that Lisa Best’s work finds its deepest relevance.
As the founder of Lisa Best Midlife Coaching, drawing on over three decades of professional counselling experience, Best supports women navigating midlife transitions shaped by divorce, career change, loss, or children leaving home. Her coaching practice centers on helping clients rediscover identity and design a new personal direction for the years ahead. The business itself, Best highlights, emerged from her own experiences that reshaped her understanding of certainty and identity.
“I grew up really wanting a plan,” Best says. “My life was very much A plus B equals C. Do this, do this, and you get this.” That belief, she explains, stemmed from her expectation that if the right steps were followed, outcomes would unfold predictably.
Staying true to that conviction, Best devoted her career to professional counseling, drawn by a consistent desire to help others. Her work centered on support, guidance, and emotional care.
Then, at 50, she faced a divorce she had never anticipated. “It was the first time that life did not align with the path I had envisioned. I had spent years believing that if you did the right thing, life would unfold a certain way. When that didn’t happen, it forced me to step back and ask who I was beyond the roles I had lived in,” she explains.
The emotional impact extended beyond the relationship itself. Best notes that much of her identity had been shaped around others’ needs. Even everyday decisions felt unfamiliar. Reflecting on a moment shopping for home decor after the separation, she shares, “My son asked me what I liked, and I realized I didn’t know. I had spent so much time focusing on everyone else that I had never really asked myself that question. I didn’t know who I was outside of other people’s perceptions of me.”
When she saw how disillusioned she became with her own identity, it led to a turning point. Over several years, she began her own counseling and personal work, where she realized how common that experience was among women in midlife. Identity, she believes, had often been anchored to marriage, motherhood, or career. Within that context, when those anchors shifted, disorientation followed.
Lisa Best Coaching was created to meet individuals at that stage of transition. The practice combines one-on-one coaching, counseling insight, and structured programming designed to guide self-discovery. Central to this framework is The Midlife Roadmap, a 10-week program that walks participants through core life areas including stability, relationships, community, contribution, and personal adventure.
With every framework, Best positions herself as a collaborative guide. “I’m not there to tell someone what their life should look like,” she explains. “I see my role as a co-pilot, helping them navigate options so they can decide what this season of life means for them.”
Her counseling background plays an important role in that process. From her perspective, forward planning becomes more effective once individuals have addressed unresolved grief or emotional disruption. This integration of therapeutic understanding with practical coaching has shaped how she supports clients through change. “A lot of women have spent years prioritizing everyone else. Midlife becomes the first time they’re asking what they want, and that can feel overwhelming at first,” she shares.
Stories of transformation often illustrate the broader impact of her work. She points to an example of supporting a woman who had planned to travel the country with her husband after retirement, only to lose him unexpectedly. Through coaching, Best notes, the client revisited that dream independently, eventually purchasing an RV and beginning the journey herself.
“The difficult things we often go through can either destroy us or allow us to use them for good,” Best says. “When I see someone move forward again, I know those experiences are being used meaningfully.”
Furthermore, Best extends support through newsletters and digital communities that offer guidance for women in midlife. She views early awareness as essential, encouraging individuals to cultivate identity, health, and personal interests before major transitions occur.
“There’s a lot of emphasis placed on women to be good mothers, good partners, or have a good career, but in the process of perfecting those responsibilities, they often lose themselves,” Best explains.
Reflecting on her formative journey, Best positions her experiences as integral moments, embedded in personal disruption, professional insight, and decades of counseling experience. And it’s those moments that inform the work she leads today. “Helping someone move from confusion to clarity is incredibly rewarding,” she says. “It feels like I’m living out exactly what I’m meant to do.”
Today, she stands as the guide she once wished she had. Through Lisa Best Midlife Coaching, she offers women the permission to rediscover who they are and the structure to build what comes next.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider.
