Why Identity Matters When You Leave the Uniform Behind
There's a question I keep coming back to, in every interview, every workshop, every conversation with a charity partner: who are you, once the uniform comes off?
Not what job will you do next.
Not where will you live.
Those questions matter, and there is genuinely good support out there to help answer them. But underneath all of that sits something else — the identity that was built over years of rank, structure, routine, and purpose, and what happens to a person when that structure is suddenly gone. That question is what the AURIS Institute exists to answer.
Where the research comes from People sometimes picture research as something that happens behind closed doors, with a small number of formal interviews and not much else. That's not how this has worked, and I think it's important people understand that, because it's part of what makes the findings trustworthy.
This research comes from interviews with people who have served across military, police, fire, ambulance, and NHS clinical roles. It comes from workshops with charity partners who work with these communities every day, often quietly, without much recognition, including Trafford Veterans CIC, and from an upcoming programme with Out in the Bay in Morecambe. And it comes from conversations with people who have generously agreed to take part but don't want their name or their face attached publicly — and that is completely okay. Their experience still shapes the findings. It's just held differently, with the same care and the same consent. Everyone who takes part, in whatever way feels right for them, is part of building something that could genuinely change how people are supported through this transition. That's a community effort, not a solo project, and I want it to feel that way.
What the research keeps showing us Across everything we've looked at so far, including official guidance from the Ministry of Defence and Royal Navy, the same gap keeps appearing. There is excellent, thorough support for the practical side of leaving service — pensions, housing, career planning, health registration. What's missing, consistently, is any real space for identity itself. People can tick every box on a resettlement checklist and still find themselves struggling months or years later, because nobody ever asked them the identity question. That's not a failure of the people delivering support. It's a gap in what the system was built to address in the first place.
Why I built the free courses This is exactly why it mattered so much to me to launch free courses through the AURIS Academy. They're built directly from this research, not from theory sitting on a shelf. Three courses, each designed to speak to a different stage of the journey — whether someone is currently transitioning out of the uniform, has been out for a while and is still working things out, or is simply starting to think about what leaving might mean for them. My hope is that they give people a starting point for the identity work that so much of the existing support doesn't reach, at no cost, because I don't think this kind of help should sit behind a paywall for people who have already given so much.
It's not just a UK story Something that keeps striking me the more I dig into this is that it isn't only happening here. Academic researchers in the United States have spent years documenting identity loss as a central part of leaving military service. Veterans Affairs Canada actually formed a dedicated working group of researchers across four countries just to study veteran identity, and they're still running long-term studies on it now. In Australia, large studies of Defence Force veterans keep finding the same thing, that a strong sense of military identity without a civilian one to match makes the transition harder. And in Sweden, one researcher has followed the same veterans for ten years and found that military identity often doesn't just fade away, it stays part of who someone is long after they've left. It goes beyond the military too. Studies of retiring police officers and firefighters in the UK, US, and Canada describe the exact same thing. One fire service study in the US put it plainly: retirement preparation is almost entirely about pensions and finances, with almost nothing for the emotional and identity side of walking away from a role that shaped who you were. So when I say this research matters, I don't mean it matters to a handful of people in one country. This is a genuinely global gap, hiding in plain sight across military, police, and fire services around the world. That's part of why I believe so strongly in what we're building.
Why I'm being upfront about how this is funded Here's something I think people deserve to know. AURIS isn't funded by anyone. Everything built so far, the research, the interviews, the workshops with partners like Trafford Veterans CIC and Out in the Bay, and the free courses on the Academy, has come out of my own resources, largely my military pension. No funder shaping the direction, no strings on what the research finds. That independence matters to me. But it also means growth depends on people actually using what's been built. Every person who works through a free course, or recommends it to someone who might need it, or eventually joins the membership app when it launches, helps fund the next stage of this work, the next workshop, the next piece of research. You don't need to sit down for a formal interview to be part of this. If you've ever worn a uniform, or you're wearing one now, the free courses are already there for you, built directly from what the research has shown so far. Using them, or telling someone else about them, is already being part of it. If it ever gets to a point where the paid courses or the membership app make sense for you, that option is there too, but there's no pressure either way. The free courses stay free, because I don't believe people who've already given so much should have to pay just to start understanding themselves again.
What comes next The research continues. The interviews continue. The workshops with charity partners like Trafford Veterans CIC continue, and I'm genuinely excited about what's ahead with Out in the Bay in Morecambe. And soon, the membership app will bring all of this together in one place, so people can access identity-focused coaching alongside the practical support they're already getting elsewhere, not instead of it. None of this happens alone. It happens because people keep saying yes — to an interview, to a workshop, to a conversation they didn't have to have. That's what makes this a community, and it's why I believe it's already starting to make a difference.
If any of this resonates with you, whether you've left the uniform behind, are about to, or are just starting to wonder what that might mean, you're welcome here. --- If leaving the uniform has ever left you struggling with who you are now, you're not alone, and support is available. Samaritans: 116 123. Veterans' Gateway: 0808 802 1212.