The Aurora Project is both a sanctuary and a study. It begins with you, the woman standing at a threshold, approaching the time when you are no longer defined by the roles and titles that once shaped you, yet still searching for the soul of who you are becoming.
This project invites you into a study of reflection, grief, and renewal, while also contributing to important research on how women experience this profound life transition.
Through shared stories, conversations, and collective wisdom, The Aurora Project seeks to illuminate not only the personal path of unraveling and awakening, but also the broader patterns that connect us all. Together, we are shaping a new understanding of what it means to step into this next life stage with courage, clarity, and soul.
Your reflections will help shape future therapeutic supports, language, and resources for women and for those who walk beside them.
We are inviting 100 women, ages 45 to 65, from diverse backgrounds to take part in this study. Participants will have lived through or be currently navigating at least two of the following experiences:
This study honours your time, boundaries, and lived experience. It is research-based—not therapy or clinical treatment—offering no diagnosis, interpretation, or intervention. You're invited to participate in ways that feel aligned and supportive for you. All contributions are voluntary, anonymized, and protected by ethical research standards ensuring care, safety, and confidentiality.
If you are interested in participating, please complete this one-minute Participant Qualifying Survey form and you will be contacted directly.
If you are not able to participate but would like updates on The Aurora Project, please subscribe to The Aurora Project’s Substack here.
Leanne Nicolle is the founder of The Aurora Project, a soulful research and support initiative guiding women through the profound transition into their next life phase—beyond career, motherhood, and menopause—toward renewed purpose and embodiment of soul.
A wife of 30 years and mother to two adult children, Madeleine (26) and Cole (23)—her greatest teachers—Leanne walks this path not as an observer but as a fellow traveler. She is navigating menopause with honesty and grace, learning to let go of the body that was—young and responsive—to embrace a softer, gentler version of strength.
Her journey has been shaped by both profound love and deep challenge, including a high-profile public harassment case in 2019 that demanded immense healing and offered profound insight into resilience, identity, and the reclamation of voice.
Formerly the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto, Leanne describes that role as one of the most transformative and privileged experiences of her professional life. In 2021, she returned to school to pursue her lifelong passion for understanding the human spirit, now working as a coach and consultant while becoming a Registered Psychotherapist.
At the heart of her work lies a deep curiosity about what it means to lose—and then rediscover—one’s identity as a woman approaching 50. She speaks to a generation of women who were the first to break corporate glass ceilings, now standing at the threshold of what comes next: no longer defined by motherhood, youth, or professional titles, and facing the evolving roles of daughter, partner, and self.
Through The Aurora Project, Leanne invites women to reimagine this phase not as an ending, but as a new dawn—the becoming of who we truly are.
The study is structured around four stages that commonly arise in this passage. The intent of the study is to discover and create the psychotherapeutic supports for this stage in a woman’s life and also create tools and resource for the men that surround them.
This stage is marked by endings: the grief of identities fading, roles dissolving, and familiar ground falling away. It is the descent into not-knowing, where the threads of the old self begin to loosen.
Examples of inquiry:
Here lies the liminal space, a disorienting passage between what has been and what is yet to come. It is a time of searching, confusion, and waiting, where the soul quietly stirs beneath the surface.
Examples of inquiry:
In this stage, the first sparks of renewal appear. Glimpses of possibility, desire, and authentic voice emerge, guiding the way forward. The rekindling is tender yet powerful—a remembering of self.
Examples of inquiry:
This final stage is the embodiment of soul. Like the dawn, it radiates clarity, courage, and wholeness. The Aurora is not an arrival but an ongoing becoming, a luminous integration of wisdom and new life.
Examples of inquiry:
January - March 2026
An open call for 100 participants (Participant Qualifying Survey)
January 10 - January 30, 2026
Invitations sent to qualified participants in 4 cohorts
February - May 2026
Collection of Participant Stories
June 2026
Re-engage and fine-tune Participants Stories
Summer 2026
Story Organization - identifying, connecting and theme concepts
September 2026
Interpretation and reporting
Fall 2026
Present Findings
Participant Event October 2026
Present to The Aurora Project's community
A qualitative research study is an exploratory approach used to understand people’s lived experiences, perceptions, and meanings they assign to particular phenomena. Rather than focusing on numbers or measurable data, qualitative research seeks depth and richness of understanding — capturing how individuals make sense of their experiences within their personal, social, and cultural contexts. Methods often include interviews, focus groups, observations, and narrative or thematic analysis. The goal is not to generalize findings to a population, but to reveal insights, patterns, and emotional truths that illuminate the complexity of human experience.
Gestalt therapy is a humanistic, experiential form of psychotherapy that focuses on awareness, presence, and the integration of all parts of the self. Developed by Fritz and Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the mid-20th century, it is grounded in the belief that healing occurs through awareness in the here and now — not by analyzing the past or predicting the future, but by fully experiencing the present moment.
Rather than pathologizing behavior, Gestalt therapy views every action, emotion, or “symptom” as a creative adjustment — a once-useful way the person learned to survive or stay connected in their environment. The therapeutic work invites curiosity and experimentation, helping clients notice how they think, feel, and act, and how they may interrupt or limit their own aliveness and connection.
At its essence, Gestalt therapy is relational: it unfolds through the authentic, present-moment encounter between therapist and client. It encourages individuals to take responsibility for their experience, integrate body, mind, and emotion, and move toward wholeness — the natural state of being fully and vibrantly alive in contact with self, others, and the world.
Leanne anticipates the study will take approximately 1 year with clear supports delivered at a launch event in fall 2026.
There is no financial commitment to being involved in The Aurora Project.
Beyond the 60 minute interview, there is no further commitment unless you choose to become more involved for further information gathering or testing the framework.
It is a 60-90 minute interview (virtual or in-person).
Leanne will provide an intake document that will have some reflective questions included.
No. The information shared with Leanne will be in the strictest of confidence unless otherwise agreed upon.
Leanne is committed to ensuring that the findings and the therapeutic framework will be shared with all participants.
In the fall of 2026, we will share the findings with participants and updates on The Aurora Project will be shared with participants throughout the process.
Yes, you can follow The Aurora Project and Leanne Nicolle at The Aurora Project's Substack here.
Privacy will be upheld in the highest of standards. If, however, you become uncomfortable sharing information it is your prerogative to withdraw from the study.
If you feel called to receive deeper, individualized support during this time of transition, Leanne is currently accepting a limited number of coaching clients. Her work combines reflective dialogue, embodiment practices, and grounded psychotherapeutic insight to help women navigate change with clarity and compassion.
Paid Offerings include:
If you’d like to learn more about The Aurora Project, inquire about participation, or explore working with Leanne directly, we invite you to reach out using the form below.
For the women who are no longer who they were — and not yet know who they will become.
We are the women who once led boardrooms, cradled children, bore expectations.
We wore armor made of accolades, heels, hormones, and held it all with grace.
But now —
The titles have fallen quiet.
The children have flown.
The body no longer plays by youth’s rules.
We stand at the edge of something unnamed.
And we will not shrink.
We will mourn what has been.
We will shed what no longer serves.
We will reclaim what was buried under roles, demands, and silence.
We will rise — not into who we were, but into who we were always meant to be.
This is not an ending.
It is a luminous threshold.
It is The Aurora.
We believe this passage deserves language, witness, and care.
And we are just beginning.
Whether you choose to participate or simply witness from afar, you are welcome here.
Receive gentle updates and insights as the study unfolds.
