The Bigger ‘Why’
Why this work matters to me
Like many of the people I now support, I have lived the complexity of navigating career, identity, health, and expectation over time.
I know what it is like to do well on the outside while quietly questioning the cost on the inside. To sense that something fundamental has changed, without having language for it or permission to respond to it honestly.
What I have learned, personally and professionally, is that people rarely ‘lose capability’. What changes is capacity. Energy, health, priorities, and tolerance shift. The strategies that once worked begin to extract more than they give.
This is not weakness or failure.
It is information.
Soul Compass exists to offer a space where that information can be listened to, understood, and responded to with care rather than judgement.
How I approach this work
I am a professionally trained career development practitioner, working within the field of career development and career counselling, informed by evidence-based theory and labour market insight.
Alongside this professional foundation, my approach is shaped by:
Long-standing study in mind–body therapies and Ayurveda
Lived experience of career change, capacity limits, and reorientation
A deep interest in how work, health, identity, and systems interact
These perspectives do not replace professional career practice. They deepen it.
They inform how I understand burnout, capacity strain, and why some career strategies stop working over time. They also shape how I think about what sustainable engagement with work actually requires at different life stages.
I work holistically, but not vaguely.
Grounded, not prescriptive.
Thoughtful, not rushed
About Narelle Vigor
@soulcompasscareers
Soul Compass grew out of a long-standing interest in the relationship between work, identity, health, and meaning – and what happens when those elements fall out of alignment.
Over time, through professional practice and lived experience, I have seen how capable people can quietly struggle in work that no longer fits. Not because they lack skill, ambition, or resilience, but because their capacity has shifted and the systems around them have not.
This page is not a list of credentials or a promise of transformation. It is an explanation of why I work the way I do, and what informs the approach you’ll encounter if we work together.
Who I work with
While much of my work is with women in mid-life, the principles that guide this practice extend across different contexts including veterans and providing boutique support to organisations and business. In short I work with complexity.
Women in mid-life
I work with women who have accumulated experience, responsibility, and often invisible labour over many years, and who are questioning how their work fits with their life, health, and values now.
This includes women who are burnt out, operating beyond sustainable capacity, late-identified or questioning neurodivergence, or carrying the ongoing weight of care alongside work. For more information you can start here.
Veterans transitioning from the ADF
I also work with veterans navigating defence-to-civilian transition.
This work recognises that career decisions are often made alongside health considerations, identity shifts, and complex administrative systems, and that ‘starting again’ is rarely a helpful framing. If you are in the throes of leaving a defence career or considering, start here.
Organisations
I work with organisations seeking ethical, evidence-based career support for their people, including Career EAP and outplacement services.
This work supports individuals through transition while helping organisations uphold dignity, trust, and long-term sustainability. If you are an employer, small or large, lead teams or HR professional, start here.
The values that guide my work
The way I work is shaped by a set of values formed through practice, study, and lived experience rather than theory alone.
These values influence how I listen, how I ask questions, and how I support people to make decisions about work and life.
Capacity over performance
I believe capacity is dynamic, not fixed. Sustainable work requires an honest relationship with energy, health, and limits, not endless endurance.
Dignity in transition
Career change, burnout, and transition are not failures. I am committed to supporting people through these moments with respect, care, and without shame.
Clarity without pressure
I value clarity that emerges through understanding, not urgency. Decisions made under pressure often replicate the very patterns people are trying to leave behind.
Whole-of-life context
Work does not exist in isolation from bodies, relationships, health, identity, or history. Careers unfold within the rest of life.
Difference without deficit
Difference, whether shaped by gender, neurodivergence, service, health, or life stage, is information to be understood, not a problem to be fixed.
Ethical practice over quick fixes
I prioritise professional integrity, evidence-informed practice, and honest conversations over speed or promises of transformation.
Meaningful engagement, not just employment
I am interested in work that supports people to stay engaged with life, not just employed at any cost.
Things I am passionate about
The work I do is shaped not only by professional training, but by long-standing interests and questions that I continue to explore.
I am deeply interested in:
Meaningful engagement with work, particularly for women in mid-life, veterans in transition, and people whose experience no longer fits standard career narratives
Capacity, not just capability, and how ignoring capacity leads to burnout, disengagement, and unnecessary loss of skilled, experienced people
The politics of work, including who benefits from traditional career models and who is quietly disadvantaged by them
Innovation, creativity, and difference in systems that often reward sameness, endurance, and compliance
The relationship between body, mind, and work, and how health, energy, and nervous system load shape what is actually sustainable over time
Simplifying complexity when people feel overwhelmed by career decisions and competing advice
Finding flow in a world full of friction, rather than forcing people to adapt endlessly to systems that were never designed with them in mind
These interests are not abstract. They show up in how I listen, how I ask questions, and how I support people to make decisions that honour both their experience and their limits.
How I’m Qualified To Help You?
Graduate Certificate in Education (Career Development & Counselling)
Diploma Polarity Therapy
Cert IV Counselling
Cert IV TAE
Dare to Lead training (Brene Brown)
Ayurvedic Wellness Coaching Certificate (Shakti School)
Mental Health First Aid Certified
Over 2500 hours coaching veterans in career transition and almost 20 years in private practice as a counsellor and coach
Lived experience
Professional Member of the Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA)
Registered Professional Member of the Career Industry Council of Australia (RPCPD)
A final note…
If you have found your way to this page, it is likely because something about the way you are working no longer feels quite right.
You don’t need to be in crisis.
You don’t need to know what comes next.
You simply need a place where the question can be taken seriously.
If that feels like the right next step, you are welcome to explore the rest of the site or book a conversation when you are ready.