Saybrook University offers flexible graduate programs that help midcareer and late-life professionals pivot with purpose and build meaningful new careers.
Careers evolve just as people do. For many midcareer professionals considering graduate programs, it’s less about chasing a title and more about finding work that feels aligned with who they’ve become. The process of going back for a master’s or pursuing advanced study later in life can be both vulnerable and empowering, a chance to begin again with clarity.
Saybrook University has become a home for people in that moment of transition. Guided by humanistic values, it offers a space for renewal and a community that sees each student as more than their resume: honoring their story and their goals.
Learn how Saybrook helps professionals navigate meaningful career change.
Who Chooses Saybrook’s Midcareer Graduate Programs and Why
Students come to Saybrook’s midcareer graduate programs after successful careers. What unites them is a desire to align their work with their values. Our job is to meet them where they are and support their next move.
"Alumni and current students come to Saybrook after successful careers," explains Mark Murphy, who recently served as director of Institutional Advancement at the university. "They often say they came to Saybrook because they were looking for something deeper, something more aligned with their purpose and values."
One of these students was Siri K. Zemel, Ph.D. Dr. Zemel enrolled in the Ph.D. in Mind‑Body Medicine program after working as a registered dietician and executive director at an eating‑disorder treatment center. Despite her success, she felt stunted: “There was a part of me that was hidden. Saybrook allowed me to tap into it.” Now, her current work includes integrative healing practices, research on mediumship and channeling, and public speaking at institutions.
Many students land on one of Saybrook’s signature fields (psychology, integrative health, leadership), but the paths they take are rarely linear. Murphy emphasizes, “They blend their prior careers with new directions. I’ve seen alums start their own coaching businesses, psychology practices, and other ventures. That pivot is what Saybrook makes possible.”
A strong example of this pivot comes from Darlene Viggiano, Ph.D., who earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at Saybrook. Dr. Viggiano turned personal loss and social justice concerns into scholarship, therapy practice, and advocacy. After experiencing a series of personal hardships, she found healing and insight through therapy. That process inspired her to help others do the same and ultimately led her to pursue a Ph.D.
For her dissertation, Dr. Viggiano explored the role of dreams and spiritual emergence in psychological transformation, a project that connected her personal narrative. She credits Saybrook with giving her a structured space to blend the scientific and the spiritual in service work. “Saybrook afforded me the opportunity to put a scientific, rigorous grounding beneath all of the spiritual synchronicities that came out of my own therapy,” she says.
Since then, Dr. Viggiano has served as a clinical therapist, educator, and author, having offered services in tele-therapy, trauma-informed groups, hypnosis, spirituality, consulting, and integrative psychology.
Graduate Programs That Support Purpose-Driven Career Change
Stories like Dr. Viggiano’s reflect a wider truth: Purpose-driven education reshapes both career and self. When people reach a turning point in their careers, what they often need from education shifts, too. They’re not looking for a prescriptive path or a narrow credential; they’re seeking a place to explore who they’ve become and how their work can make an impact.
Saybrook’s graduate programs for career changers encourage both professional growth and personal insight. Students drawn to Saybrook want to study frameworks and theories, but they also want to apply them to questions that feel real:
- How can I lead with greater empathy?
- How do systems change?
- How does healing happen for individuals?
- How does healing happen for communities?
"Students are doing really nuanced dissertation work,” Murphy says. For example, one student is researching maternal health in Western Africa. “These are global issues, deeply personal to the student but globally significant.”
Saybrook’s academic offerings reflect its humanistic and integrative vision, often encouraging students to bring their lived experiences into their studies. Students in the Transformative Social Change Ph.D. program, for example, study systems-level change, working on dissertations that examine real-world challenges.
Each Saybrook program is a platform for both professional advancement and personal transformation. For many, this kind of work becomes the bridge between where they’ve been and where they’re headed.
Flexible Online Graduate Programs for Midcareer Professionals
Many midcareer students need the freedom to study on their own terms without losing the sense of community that makes learning transformative. Our online graduate programs are designed for working professionals balancing careers and family life while still offering genuine connection and accountability.
"Saybrook does a great job of providing academic structure and community support that makes difficult career pivots possible," Murphy says. "We meet students where they are and give them the tools to step into their next chapter with confidence."
For students during personal or professional change, balance can make all the difference. Saybrook’s learning model is designed with that balance in mind, combining flexibility with intentional opportunities for connection and shared inquiry.
Online Learning That Builds Connection and Community
For many navigating career and life transitions, online learning makes education possible, but flexibility alone isn’t enough. What matters most is the chance to stay connected and to be part of a genuine learning community.
Saybrook’s online format is built with that understanding. Designed primarily for online learners, courses blend asynchronous and synchronous experiences, giving students space to reflect on their own time while staying actively involved in real-time dialogue.
"Connection is one of the challenges of being a mostly online university," Murphy says "but [Saybrook creates] opportunities like the Community Learning Experience to bring the community together. It’s really powerful."
Saybrook’s Community Learning Experience is a multiday gathering where students and faculty meet in person to exchange ideas, practice mindfulness, and explore what it means to learn in community.
Moments like these offer students the chance to dive deeper into dialogue and collaborative discovery, ensuring online learning never becomes isolating or one-dimensional.
Cohort Learning and Professional Communities for Career Growth
Every student begins their Saybrook journey within a cohort, forming circles of peers who move through the program together. These connections often continue beyond graduation, forming informal communities of practice.
Students and alumni also connect through Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), groups organized around shared interests (e.g., veteran students, animal rights, integrative health). PLC members meet regularly to read, reflect, and build together.
“In our PLCs, students and alumni come together around shared interests,” Murphy says. “Mentorship naturally emerges from those communities.”
The PLCs serve as ongoing incubators of connection and meaning, keeping graduates tethered to their purpose.
Scholarships and Financial Aid for Graduate Students
Returning to school later in life comes with real concerns, and affordability is one of the most common. Saybrook provides scholarships and aid so returning to graduate school later in life remains possible for everyone.
"[Saybrook offers] really generous and solid scholarships that help finance graduate education," Murphy says. "So one would not have to let fear or finances be a deterrent."
Saybrook’s Alumni Association Scholarship Fund provides priority support to students in dissertation, capstone, or thesis phases. As a nonprofit institution, Saybrook reinvests tuition and donations into student experience, scholarships, faculty support, and mission-driven innovation.
For students reimagining their next chapter, this kind of support helps ensure that financial realities don’t limit personal or professional transformation.
Support for Midcareer and Late-Life Career Change
Career change calls for courage, and it takes a support system that knows how to help you succeed.
"Saybrook transforms your mind, your heart, and your career,” Murphy says. If you’re feeling the tug toward something more meaningful, we provide the grounding and community to make a change.
Ready to start your next chapter? Explore Saybrook University’s midcareer and late-life graduate programs designed for professionals pursuing a meaningful career change. Fill out the brief form below for more information.
