The Executive Gap: Why Your Professional Skills Feel Broken Post-Divorce (And How to Bridge It)

Quick Scan: Are You in the Executive Gap?

Before we dive in, take 30 seconds. Score yourself honestly:

Decision paralysis: You're second-guessing calls you'd normally make in seconds
Mental fog: Your strategic thinking feels sluggish, scattered, or just… off
Execution drop: You know what to do, but doing it feels impossibly heavy
Confidence erosion: You're avoiding high-stakes situations you used to thrive in
Identity blur: You're not sure if you're the same professional you were 12 months ago

If you ticked a few of these, you may be experiencing what I call the Executive Gap. And here's what nobody tells you: this isn't a character flaw. It's a common performance dip that can show up when your operating system takes a hit: and divorce is one of the biggest hits there is.

Let’s start closing the gap.

The Scene You Know Too Well

You're sitting in a meeting. Someone asks for your decision on something you've handled a hundred times before. And instead of the clarity you're known for… nothing. A hesitation. A deferral. A vague "let me get back to you."

You leave that meeting wondering what the hell just happened.

You used to be the person others came to for decisive action. The one who could see five moves ahead. The one who operated with calm certainty while everyone else was scrambling.

Now? You're scrambling. And you can't figure out why.

If this sounds familiar, you're not broken. You're not losing your edge permanently. You're experiencing what I call the Executive Gap: the noticeable gap between your previous professional capacity and your current performance state after a major disruption.

Divorce happens to be one of the most disruptive forces there is. It’s widely considered one of the most stressful life events. And that stress doesn't stay at home. It follows you into the boardroom, the strategy session, the negotiation.

The good news? For many high-achievers, this gap can be reduced significantly with the right structure. But first, you need to understand why it opened in the first place.

Why Performance Drops After Disruption (A Systems View)

Here's what's actually happening under the hood.

Your professional edge is not just “experience” or “IQ.” It’s the set of capabilities that let you operate at a high level under complexity: focus, working memory, prioritisation, decision quality, and consistent follow-through.

When your life takes a major hit, those capabilities can degrade—not because you’ve become less competent, but because your system is carrying more load than it was designed for.

Divorce doesn’t just create emotional noise. It creates a sustained, multi-domain disruption: practical logistics, financial/legal administration, parenting schedules, social shifts, and a constant stream of “unfinished” decisions. Research suggests prolonged stress can affect focus, working memory, and decision quality—especially when recovery (sleep, training, quiet time) is inconsistent.

What prolonged stress does to performance (in plain, executive language)

There are a few predictable patterns that show up for high-achievers when pressure becomes prolonged:

Your mental workspace shrinks: you can’t hold the full “board” in your head (strategy, stakeholders, risk, timing) without dropping pieces.
Your decision cycle slows down: calls that used to be fast become heavier, because each decision now “feels” higher risk.
Your attention gets choppy: you bounce between tasks, and deep work becomes harder to initiate.
Your time horizon contracts: you default to short-term relief decisions instead of long-range strategic moves.
Your execution friction increases: you can still outline the plan, but starting and sustaining the work takes more effort than it should.

This is why you can still “look functional” while your output quality drops. You’re showing up. You’re attending. You’re replying. But the internal processing is slower, noisier, and less reliable.

Why high-performers feel this more sharply

If you’re used to being the person with range—high capacity, fast decisions, calm execution—then a 10–25% drop isn’t subtle. It’s jarring.

And because you’ve historically solved problems with effort, the default move is to push harder.

That can work in short bursts. But for most people in the gap, willpower alone is rarely enough because the problem isn’t motivation—it’s load and architecture. You need to reduce what the system is carrying, and reinstall the frameworks that make decisions and execution feel clean again.

How it shows up in the real world (performance indicators, not “feelings”)

For high-achievers, the drop is usually expressed through professional indicators (and if you want a deeper breakdown of the patterns that make this worse, see the common mistakes high-achievers make with decision-making after divorce):

Reduced conflict resolution accuracy: you misread stakeholders, miss subtext, or choose the wrong timing.
Impaired selective attention: everything feels urgent; nothing gets deep focus.
Decision fatigue acceleration: you burn through your “decision budget” early and start defaulting to safe, low-quality calls.
Diminished strategic foresight: you operate tactically because strategic thinking feels like pushing through mud.
Execution friction: you can describe the plan, but initiating the work feels disproportionately heavy.

This isn't weakness. It's a systems issue.

The mistake most executives make? They try to push through with willpower. They assume if they just work harder, focus more, grind longer: the old performance will return.

For most people, it doesn’t return just from pushing harder.

What tends to work better is a rebuild: reduce load, reinstall decision architecture, and create an intentional path back to clean execution.

The Bridge Framework: Reconstructing Executive Performance

The Bridge Framework is designed for exactly this scenario. It's not about "recovery" in the therapeutic sense. It's about performance reconstruction: rebuilding your professional operating system to close the Executive Gap.

There are four pillars. Each one addresses a specific failure point in post-disruption executive function.

Pillar 1: Cognitive Load Reduction (Bandwidth as a Strategic Asset)

Your brain is currently running too many background processes. The divorce itself. The logistics. The emotional processing. The identity questions. All of it is eating bandwidth you used to allocate to work.

The move: treat cognitive bandwidth like working capital. You protect it, allocate it, and stop leaking it.

The Audit (10 minutes, brutally honest)

Answer these like a strategist, not a moral philosopher:

What decisions am I making repeatedly that don’t change outcomes?
Where am I doing “open-loop” work (starting things I don’t finish, leaving tabs open, carrying tasks mentally)?
What time of day do I still have clean executive function? (usually 90–150 minutes for most people in the gap)
What meetings am I attending out of obligation rather than ROI?
What are my top three “cognitive leak” triggers? (certain people, certain topics, certain times of day)
Where am I using my inbox as a task manager? (guaranteed load increase)
What am I postponing that is quietly taxing me every day? (one unresolved conversation can cost you hours a week)
What “home load” is bleeding into work hours because it hasn’t been containerised?

When you have answers, you’re no longer guessing. You’re diagnosing.

Bandwidth Protection Protocols (minimalist, executive-grade)

These are not productivity hacks. They’re load containment rules.

Protocol 1: The Two-Window Comms System
- Email/Teams/Slack only in two windows per day (e.g., 11:30 and 16:30).
- Outside those windows: notifications off, closed tabs.
- Your job is execution, not reactive servicing.
Protocol 2: The “One List” Rule
- One capture system. One. (Notebook, Notes app, task manager.)
- If a task isn’t on the list, it doesn’t exist. This stops mental carrying costs.
Protocol 3: Meeting Gatekeeping
- Default response to new meetings: “What decision will be made, and what pre-read do you need from me?”
- If there’s no decision, it’s a status update. Status updates are asynchronous.
Protocol 4: 90-Minute Deep Work Lock
- One protected block, 4–5 days a week.
- Phone away. Browser limited. Door closed.
- This is where your strategic value comes from. Everything else is support.
Protocol 5: Decision Pre-Loading
- Start your day by pre-deciding:
  - top 3 outcomes for the day
  - what you will not do
  - the single “must-win” conversation or deliverable
- You reduce decision demand later when your PFC is weaker.
Protocol 6: “No Open Loops Overnight” (5-minute shutdown)
- End the day with:
  - next actions written
  - first task for tomorrow defined
  - any unresolved items parked explicitly
- Your brain stops running background processes while you try to sleep.

This isn’t about working less. It's about working with less friction. Every cognitive leak you seal is bandwidth you can redirect to high-stakes execution.

Pillar 2: Decision Architecture Rebuild (Stop Thinking. Start Running Principles.)

Post-divorce, your old decision-making frameworks are compromised. The principles that guided you were often co-constructed with your former partner: consciously or not. Now those principles feel unreliable.

You feel it as hesitation. But the real issue is architecture.

The move: build a new decision architecture from first principles so you don’t have to “figure yourself out” every time pressure hits.

Operating Principles (examples you can actually use)

Operating principles are not values posters. They are if/then rules you execute when your brain is tired.

People / Leadership

“I address performance drift within 48 hours, not after the next missed deliverable.”
“I don’t manage by mood; I manage by metrics and agreements.”
“If a role is unclear, I clarify ownership before I push for outcomes.”

Strategy

“If we can’t explain the strategy in 60 seconds, it’s not ready.”
“We choose the constraint first (time, quality, cost). Everything else follows.”
“When faced with two good options, I pick the one that preserves strategic flexibility.”

Time Allocation

“Anything under 2 minutes gets done now; anything above goes on the list.”
“I protect one deep work block daily before I accept meetings.”
“I say no by default to low-leverage tasks, even if I can do them quickly.”

Stakeholders / Politics

“I don’t assume alignment; I confirm it explicitly.”
“If a relationship is a dependency, I invest in it before I need it.”

Risk

“I make reversible decisions quickly; irreversible decisions slowly and with counsel.”
“If the cost of delay exceeds the cost of error, I decide.”

These principles remove case-by-case thrashing. You’re not “finding confidence.” You’re reducing cognitive demand.

The Decision Reset Workflow (step-by-step)

When you’re in the gap, decisions feel heavier because your bandwidth is already overloaded. This workflow is designed to lower load, increase clarity, and prevent regret loops.

Name the decision (one sentence)
- “I am deciding whether to restructure the team this quarter.”
Define the decision class
- Reversible (can be undone) vs Irreversible (hard to undo)
- Reversible = bias to speed. Irreversible = bias to due diligence.
Set the success criteria (3 bullets max)
- What must be true in 90 days for this to be considered a good decision?
- Keep it measurable where possible.
List constraints (not preferences)
- Budget ceilings, timeline realities, legal/compliance, capability limits.
- Constraints reduce the option space. That’s the point.
Generate only two options
- Option A and Option B. Not five. Not ten.
- Over-optioning is a stress response that masquerades as rigor.
Run the “Operating Principle” filter
- Which option best matches your installed principles?
- If you don’t have a principle for this category, you just found your next one to build.
Identify the “fear tax”
- Ask: “What am I afraid will happen if I choose A? If I choose B?”
- This surfaces threat-based thinking without turning into therapy.
Commit with a review date
- Decide, document, and set a check-in point.
- Example: “Execute Option A. Review in 14 days with these three metrics.”
Close the loop
- Send the message. Book the meeting. Create the ticket.
- No half-decisions. Half-decisions create chronic cognitive load.

The result is not perfect decisions. It’s clean decisions—decisions that don’t keep draining you for weeks.

Pillar 3: Confidence Recompounding (The Evidence Ledger)

Confidence isn't a feeling. It's a calculation your brain runs based on recent evidence.

Post-divorce, your internal model takes a hit: “If I couldn’t keep that stable, what else am I misjudging?” The brain generalises. It starts treating professional challenges as higher threat because your baseline sense of control has been undermined.

The move: rebuild confidence the same way it was built the first time—through evidence. But now it’s deliberate.

The psychological mechanism: how the Evidence Ledger works

Your brain keeps an implicit ledger of:

claims (“I’m decisive under pressure”)
recent proof (wins, follow-through, impact)
recent contradictions (avoidance, missed deadlines, social friction, sloppy execution)

After divorce, the ledger gets contaminated by non-work data:

broken agreements at home start “feeling like” broken reliability at work
emotional volatility starts “feeling like” reduced leadership capacity
uncertainty at home starts “feeling like” you can’t trust your judgment anywhere

The goal is not to talk yourself into confidence. It’s to out-evidence the doubt.

Two rules:

Evidence must be specific (“sent the proposal”, “closed the decision”, “held the boundary”).
Evidence must be recent (last 7–14 days carries more weight than your résumé).

Micro-Victories (a more comprehensive list)

Micro-victories are small enough to be unavoidable and concrete enough to count. Choose 3–5 per week.

Execution wins

Clear 20 minutes of admin that you’ve been avoiding
Ship a “good enough” draft instead of perfecting it
Close one open loop (approve, decline, delegate, schedule)

Leadership wins

Have the short performance conversation you’re delaying
Set a boundary on scope creep in writing
Clarify ownership in a meeting (“Who owns this by Friday?”)

Strategic wins

Produce a 1-page decision brief instead of a 10-slide deck
Kill one low-ROI initiative
Reprioritise the week with your top three outcomes (and communicate them)

Relationship capital wins

Proactively update a key stakeholder before they ask
Repair one micro-friction (“I was short yesterday—here’s the reset”)
Book one relationship investment coffee/walk with a high-leverage internal ally

Personal operating system wins

Consistent sleep window for 3 nights
Two training sessions
5-minute shutdown routine for five workdays

Exposure Protocols (graduated re-entry to high stakes)

Avoidance feels like protection. In reality it teaches your nervous system: “This is dangerous.” Your world shrinks, and your confidence collapses further.

You need controlled exposure—executive-grade, not reckless.

List your avoided arenas
- Board meetings, negotiations, presentations, performance management, networking, sales calls.
Create a 4-step ladder for one arena
- Example: presentations
  1. speak early in a small internal meeting (60 seconds)
  2. run a 10-minute section of a deck with a friendly audience
  3. present to a mixed internal group
  4. lead the external client pitch / board update
Define the win condition
- Not “crush it.” Something measurable:
  - “I spoke within the first 5 minutes.”
  - “I delivered the key recommendation without over-explaining.”
  - “I asked for a decision.”
Debrief with the ledger
- What did you do that proves competence?
- What will you adjust next time?
- Log it. Evidence only.

Confidence recompounds the same way it originally built. One piece of evidence at a time. The difference now is you’re doing it intentionally rather than waiting for a lucky breakthrough.

Pillar 4: Emotional Regulation as a Professional Skill (State Control for Executives)

Here's where most high-achievers resist. Emotional regulation sounds soft. It sounds like something you should have handled already.

But here’s the operational truth: your capacity for complex professional performance is directly tied to your performance state. When you’re running “hot” for too long—under prolonged pressure, with fragmented attention and inconsistent recovery—your decision quality and execution range can drop.

The move: treat regulation as state control. Not self-help. Not therapy. A performance capability.

Somatic Anchoring (executive-grade, in the room, under pressure)

Somatic anchoring is using the body to create a clear shift in state: “I’m steady enough to execute.” You’re not trying to feel amazing. You’re aiming for stable, usable focus.

Use this when you’re walking into:

negotiations
board meetings
conflict conversations
high-visibility presentations

2-Minute Somatic Anchor Protocol

Feet + posture
- Both feet on the ground, spine tall, shoulders down.
- Posture is a nervous system input. Stop collapsing.
Exhale bias
- 4 seconds in, 6–8 seconds out, 6 rounds.
- Longer exhale shifts physiology away from threat readiness.
Jaw + hands
- Unclench jaw. Open the hands.
- Micro-tension tells your brain “danger.” Release tells it “control.”
Orienting
- Look at three fixed points in the room and name them silently.
- This reduces tunnel vision and interrupts threat scanning.
Single intention
- One line: “My job is to be clear and decisive.”
- Not ten intentions. One.

This is how you stay in command while your internal environment is unstable.

Warning signals (catch it early)

Executives miss dysregulation because it doesn’t always look like panic. It can look like:

speeding up your speech
over-explaining
pushing for premature closure
checking email compulsively
irritation at normal friction
avoidance disguised as “I’ll circle back”

The earlier you spot the signature, the less effort it takes to correct.

Use data to manage state (without getting obsessive)

If you’re ROI-focused, use objective indicators as signals, not identity.

Options:

Sleep duration/consistency: your baseline performance multiplier.
Resting heart rate (if you track it): a rough indicator of recovery strain over time.
HRV trends (if you track it): another rough indicator some executives use to gauge recovery/stress load.
Focus time (tracked deep work minutes): a practical output measure.

Simple State Dashboard (weekly)

HRV trend: up / flat / down
Sleep: average hours + consistency (bed/wake variance)
Deep work: number of 90-minute blocks completed
Training: sessions completed
One subjective marker: “How fast did I recover from stress this week?”

Then do the executive move: adjust inputs.

HRV down + sleep inconsistent? Reduce evening stimulation, tighten shutdown routine, lower late meetings.
Deep work collapsing? Your cognitive load protocols aren’t installed—go back to Pillar 1.
Recovery slow after stress? Increase micro-recovery between meetings (2–5 minutes) and tighten pre-meeting anchoring.

This isn’t about becoming a different person. It’s about operating your existing system with better control under load.

The Shadow Costs of the Gap

If you leave the Executive Gap unaddressed, it rarely stays stable. It tends to compound quietly. And because you’re still “showing up,” it can take months before you realise what it has cost you.

This is where conventional advice fails you. People say “give it time.” Time doesn’t rebuild executive function. Architecture does.

Here are the professional risks that show up long-term.

Relationship capital erosion

When you’re operating below your normal baseline, small behaviours change:

you respond later
you cancel more
you avoid the hard conversation
you become less crisp in meetings
you stop following through as reliably

Nobody calls you out immediately. They just start routing around you.

That’s relationship capital erosion: trust and confidence in your reliability declining by a thousand micro-signals.

Strategic drift

In the gap, you default to:

operational firefighting
safe decisions
short-term wins
“keep it moving” execution

Strategic work requires spare cognitive bandwidth and long-range planning. If those capabilities are compromised, your role quietly shrinks from strategist to operator. Not because you became less capable—because your system is overloaded.

Strategic drift is what happens when your calendar fills up, but your direction blurs.

Missed opportunities (that don’t come back)

High-level opportunities tend to be time-bound:

a new role opens
a partner wants to collaborate
a key account is in play
a leadership window appears

In the gap, you hesitate. You don’t push. You pass because it feels heavy. Then six months later you’re stable again… and the window is closed.

This is the hidden tax: you don’t just lose output. You lose timing.

Reputation lag

Your reputation is a trailing indicator.

You can have one quarter of reduced sharpness and feel fine. The market doesn’t forget instantly. But if the gap lasts long enough, your identity in the system changes:

“He’s not as decisive as he used to be.”
“She’s gone quiet.”
“They’re not leading like they did.”

That’s a reputation lag—and reversing it takes longer than preventing it.

If you’re ROI-driven, this section matters: bridging the gap isn’t just about feeling better. It’s about protecting professional assets.

Identity Reconstruction: Moving from “Former Self” to “Emergent Executive”

This is the part nobody wants to talk about, because it sounds psychological.

But identity is not a fluffy concept for high-achievers. It’s a performance driver. Your identity determines what you attempt, what you tolerate, how you decide, and what you believe is available to you.

Post-divorce, a lot of executives get stuck trying to return to the “former self”:

the old energy
the old certainty
the old life architecture that supported the old performance

That’s the trap. The former system is gone. Trying to recreate it keeps you in friction.

The goal is not to recover the former self. It’s to construct the emergent executive.

The three identity phases (what’s actually happening)

Phase 1: Former Self

You reference old capacity as the benchmark.
You interpret current friction as failure.
You keep trying to “push through” to get back.

Phase 2: The Void (the dangerous middle)

Old assumptions don’t work.
New assumptions aren’t installed yet.
This is where decision paralysis, overthinking, and confidence collapse thrive.

Phase 3: Emergent Executive

You stop negotiating with reality.
You build new operating principles.
You become someone who can perform under a different set of conditions—more robust, less dependent on external stability.

This is reconstruction, not recovery.

What changes from former to emergent (executive-level shifts)

Old identity: “I perform when life is stable.”
New identity: “I’m stable because my operating system is stable.”

Old identity: “Confidence comes from outcomes.”
New identity: “Confidence comes from evidence and follow-through.”

Old identity: “I make decisions by instinct.”
New identity: “I make decisions through architecture, then refine instinct again.”

Old identity: “I can carry everything in my head.”
New identity: “I don’t carry what can be containerised.”

The identity installation process (coaching, not therapy)

This is how you make it real:

Name what is no longer true
- “I can’t run 14-hour days and recover overnight anymore.”
- That’s not weakness. That’s a new constraint.
Define the new constraints explicitly
- Time, energy, emotional bandwidth, parenting schedule, legal noise.
- Constraints are not problems. They’re design inputs.
Build new operating principles that match reality
- This is Pillar 2 in identity form.
- You stop improvising.
Prove it with evidence
- Pillar 3 closes the loop: micro-victories + exposure protocols.
- Identity becomes believable when it’s lived.

The emergent executive is not “happier.” The emergent executive is more structurally sound.

The Implementation Timeline (8 Weeks, Broken Down)

Here’s what a realistic reconstruction timeline looks like when it’s granular enough to execute.

Week 1: Cognitive Load Audit + Stop the Leaks

Run the Pillar 1 audit questions.
Install the Two-Window Comms System.
Choose your daily 90-minute deep work lock and protect it on the calendar.
End each day with a 5-minute shutdown (no open loops overnight).

Week 2: Simplify + Stabilise Your Baseline

Remove or delegate 2–3 low-ROI commitments.
Implement Meeting Gatekeeping (“What decision will be made?”).
Pre-decide recurring choices (food, training, morning routine).
Identify your top three dysregulation warning signals.

Week 3: Map Decision Categories + Draft Operating Principles

Identify your top 5 recurring decision categories.
Draft 1–2 operating principles per category (keep them executable).
Pick one current decision and run the Decision Reset Workflow end-to-end.
Start an Evidence Ledger (simple notes doc works).

Week 4: Install Decision Architecture in the Real Calendar

Use operating principles in live meetings (don’t keep them theoretical).
Create one “decision brief” template (one page) for high-stakes calls.
Close one lingering open loop you’ve been postponing.
Add a weekly review slot (30 minutes) to refine principles based on results.

Week 5: Micro-Victory Stack + Low-Risk Exposure

Choose 3–5 micro-victories for the week and schedule them.
Build one exposure ladder (pick a single avoided arena).
Do the first step (small but real).
Log evidence only: what you did, what result occurred, what you’ll repeat.

Week 6: Relationship Capital Repair (Quietly, Strategically)

Identify 3 key stakeholders you’ve gone quiet with.
Proactively update them (short, crisp, no oversharing).
Repair one micro-friction conversation directly.
Keep deep work protected (don’t trade it away for “catch-ups”).

Week 7: High-Stakes Exposure + State Control Under Load

Move to step 2 or 3 on the exposure ladder.
Use the 2-minute somatic anchor before every high-pressure interaction.
If you track data (HRV/sleep), review weekly trends and adjust inputs.
Keep decision-making clean: decide, document, review date.

Week 8: Consolidation + Next 90-Day Build

Review your operating principles: keep, refine, remove.
Review your Evidence Ledger: identify what reliably restores confidence.
Create a 90-day plan with:
- 1 strategic objective
- 1 relationship objective
- 1 personal operating system objective
Choose what “emergent executive” looks like in behaviours, not beliefs.

This isn't a quick fix. But it’s also not years of slow improvement. With focused executive performance coaching, you can start closing the gap with a structured, time-bound rebuild.

FAQ: High-Achievers’ Questions When Performance Slips Post-Divorce

1) “Is this just burnout?”

Sometimes. Often it’s not classic burnout—it’s disruption load. Same outward symptoms (fog, low motivation, reduced output), different cause. The solution isn’t rest alone. It’s cognitive load reduction plus rebuilt decision architecture.

2) “How do I lead a team when I don’t feel like myself?”

You don’t wait to “feel like yourself.” You lead through principles and structure:

clear priorities
clean decisions
short feedback loops
consistent communication
That’s leadership that holds under stress.

3) “How long until I’m back to my old performance?”

Wrong target. Your former performance was built on a former life system. Your goal is to build an operating system that performs in current reality—then often exceeds the old baseline because it’s explicit and engineered.

4) “What if my judgment is compromised right now?”

Assume it is—partially—and design around it.

Use the Decision Reset Workflow.
Treat irreversible decisions with more counsel.
Install operating principles so you’re not improvising under load.
That’s what mature decision architecture is for.

5) “Do I need a divorce recovery coach or performance coaching?”

If your primary problem is execution gap, decision fog, and professional confidence erosion, you don’t need endless processing. You need reconstruction. That’s where performance coaching at Primary Self fits: precision work on decision architecture, identity reconstruction, and performance restoration.

What's Actually on the Other Side

The Executive Gap isn't permanent. It's a transition state.

What's interesting is this: many high-achievers who do this reconstruction work properly report emerging with better professional capacity than before. Not because divorce made them stronger: that's toxic positivity: but because the rebuild forced them to make their operating system explicit.

They stopped running on autopilot. They started running on architecture.

If you're in the gap right now, here's the shift: stop trying to find your old self. That version operated on assumptions and frameworks that no longer exist.

Start building the next version. On purpose. With precision.

That's what performance coaching is actually for: not fixing what's broken, but constructing what's next.

Your Move

You don't need to figure this out alone. But you do need to start.

Pick one pillar from the Bridge Framework. Just one. Implement it this week.

Cognitive load reduction is usually the easiest entry point. Audit tomorrow. Eliminate three decisions. See what shifts.

And if you’re local and you’re weighing up options, here’s a practical read on performance coaching in Adelaide (and what to look for if you want reconstruction, not generic motivation).

Note: This article is for general information and coaching education only. It isn’t medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. If you’re experiencing significant distress or mental health symptoms, seek support from a qualified health professional.

The gap is real. But so is the bridge.