Upside Stories Library

Stay curious

Explore our evidence-based insights on life’s big questions, transitions, and challenges for people approaching midlife and beyond.

Dr Bruce Walmsley Dr Bruce Walmsley

Will AI Reshape Your Job, or Rewrite Your Story?

AI is changing who gets to work, and how. For midlife adults, job displacement isn't just a financial shock, it's an identity crisis. Here's what psychology offers for navigating this change.

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Dr Bruce Walmsley Dr Bruce Walmsley

Finding unexpected growth after life changing and traumatic events

Can something good really come from something so hard? The answer, backed by decades of research, is yes — though not in the way people expect. Posttraumatic growth isn't about feeling grateful for what happened. It's about the unexpected strength, meaning, and possibility that can emerge from the struggle. This article explains what the research shows — and what it might mean for you.

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Dr Bruce Walmsley Dr Bruce Walmsley

From Guilty Failure to Moral Courage: How Families Living With Dementia Find Growth After Traumatic Loss

There is a particular phrase that appears again and again in the accounts of family members who have moved a family member with dementia into a care home. Not anger, not relief — though both of those are present. The phrase is simpler, and harder: I feel like I've failed. For many families, this is where the story appears to end. But a growing body of research indicates it is where something else begins.

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Dr Bruce Walmsley Dr Bruce Walmsley

Holding On While Letting Go: Trauma and Growth when Dementia Care moves to Residential Care

There is a moment many family carers describe in almost identical terms; a day that arrives with paperwork, practical necessity, and an ache that defies explanation. The day they hand over the care of someone they love to an unfamiliar system of aged care. For such families, the emotional meaning is rarely spoken about. Yet research suggests that within such painful experiences, something else is also possible — an unexpected capacity for growth.

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