The Hero’s Journey

Every meaningful change begins with a departure.

Sometimes we choose to leave the familiar because we are inspired by a new possibility. At other times, change is forced upon us through redundancy, illness, relationship difficulties, organisational restructuring or a growing awareness that our current direction is no longer right.

Whatever the circumstances, change often asks us to move beyond what we know before we feel entirely ready.

Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey provides a powerful way of understanding this experience. Although Campbell developed the model through his study of mythology, its underlying pattern offers valuable insights into personal development, coaching, leadership and organisational change.

The Hero’s Journey helps us recognise that uncertainty, resistance and challenge are not necessarily signs that change is failing. They may be natural stages within a deeper process of learning and transformation.

Joseph Campbell and the “Monomyth”

Joseph Campbell was an American scholar of comparative mythology and religion. In his influential 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell explored stories from different cultures and identified a recurring narrative pattern that he called the monomyth.

In its broadest form, the pattern follows three movements:

1. Departure – the hero leaves the familiar world.
2. Initiation – the hero encounters tests, allies, challenges and transformation.
3. Return – the hero returns with new knowledge, abilities or wisdom.

Campbell’s work was influenced by several earlier traditions, including Arnold van Gennep’s study of rites of passage, Carl Jung’s work on archetypes and the collective unconscious, and the psychoanalytic study of myth.

Van Gennep (1960) proposed that significant transitions commonly involve separation from an existing position, a transitional or liminal period, and eventual incorporation into a new identity or role. Victor Turner (1969) later developed the concept of liminality: the uncertain, “in-between” space in which someone has left an old way of being but has not yet fully established the new one.

This transitional space is central to the Hero’s Journey—and to most meaningful processes of personal and professional change.

The Hero’s Journey Is Not Just a Story

The Hero’s Journey is often discussed as a storytelling structure. It has influenced literature, film and popular culture, and was later adapted for screenwriters by Christopher Vogler in The Writer’s Journey.

However, its relevance extends well beyond storytelling.

Human beings use stories to interpret experience, organise memories and create meaning. Narrative psychologists argue that people develop an internalised and evolving story of the self, connecting past experiences with their understanding of the present and their expectations for the future (McAdams, 2001; McAdams and McLean, 2013).

When people say:

• “I’m stuck.”
• “I don’t know who I am anymore.”
• “I feel as though I’m at a crossroads.”
• “I know something needs to change.”
• “I want to begin a new chapter.”

They are describing their experience through narrative.

The Hero’s Journey gives individuals, coaches and leaders a vocabulary through which these experiences can be explored. It transforms change from a collection of disconnected difficulties into a meaningful developmental journey.

The Main Stages of the Journey

Campbell’s original monomyth contained a detailed sequence of stages. Later interpretations have simplified and adapted the structure, but the central themes remain consistent.

1. The Ordinary World

The journey begins in the familiar environment. Life may be comfortable, frustrating or simply predictable. There is usually an established identity, routine or way of understanding the world.

In personal development, this may be someone’s current career, relationship, lifestyle or habitual way of thinking.

In leadership, it might be an established organisational culture, management style or business model.

2. The Call to Adventure

Something disrupts the familiar. A new possibility appears, a problem becomes impossible to ignore or circumstances demand a response.

The call might be:

• An ambition to become a coach or leader
• A desire to build a business
• An opportunity for promotion
• Feedback that challenges a person’s self-perception
• A personal crisis or unexpected setback
• A need for organisational transformation
• A growing sense that greater potential remains unexplored

The call creates tension between the safety of what is known and the possibilities of what might become possible.

3. Refusal of the Call

Resistance is a natural part of change.

People may doubt themselves, minimise the need for change or find reasons to remain where they are. They may worry about failure, criticism, uncertainty, loss of status or the possibility of making the wrong decision.

Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s work on Immunity to Change demonstrates how people can remain committed to improvement while simultaneously holding competing assumptions that protect the status quo (Kegan and Lahey, 2009). Resistance is therefore not always laziness or a lack of motivation. It may represent an attempt to preserve psychological safety, identity or belonging.

A skilful coach or leader does not simply dismiss resistance. They become curious about what it may be protecting.

4. Meeting the Mentor

In myths, the hero frequently encounters a guide who provides knowledge, encouragement, perspective or a vital resource.

In real life, the mentor might be a coach, teacher, trainer, colleague, manager, friend or author. Their role is not to complete the journey on someone else’s behalf. It is to help the individual recognise their own resources and become better prepared for what lies ahead.

Effective coaching performs a similar function. Research suggests that coaching can support goal attainment, resilience, wellbeing and workplace performance when it encourages reflection, responsibility and self-directed action (Grant, 2003; Theeboom, Beersma and van Vianen, 2014).

5. Crossing the Threshold

Insight becomes action.

The person submits the application, begins the qualification, starts the business, accepts the leadership role, changes a behaviour or has the conversation they have been avoiding.

Crossing the threshold matters because change remains theoretical until a person commits to a different course of action.

This stage can be strengthened by establishing a clear outcome, identifying the first observable action and creating accountability.

6. Tests, Allies and Challenges

Once the journey begins, difficulties emerge. Old habits return, confidence fluctuates and unexpected obstacles appear.

Allies also become important. Supportive peers, coaches, mentors and communities can provide encouragement, honest feedback and practical assistance.

Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy suggests that confidence develops through mastery experiences, social modelling, encouragement and the interpretation of emotional and physiological states (Bandura, 1997). Confidence is therefore not something people must possess before beginning. It frequently develops through taking action and learning from experience.

7. The Ordeal

The ordeal represents a significant challenge, confrontation or moment of truth.

For an individual, this might involve facing a deeply held fear, questioning an old identity or acknowledging that a familiar strategy no longer works.

For a coach, it may involve moving beyond the comfort of following a process and developing the presence, flexibility and judgement required to respond to the person in front of them.

For a leader, it may involve making a difficult decision, accepting responsibility, addressing conflict or remaining grounded during uncertainty.

The ordeal should not be romanticised. Real change can be demanding. However, supported challenge can generate insight, resilience and a revised understanding of what the individual is capable of achieving.

8. Transformation and Reward

The reward is not always an external achievement. It may be a new capability, belief, perspective or sense of identity.

Transformative learning theory proposes that adults can change the frames of reference through which they interpret themselves and the world, particularly when assumptions are examined through reflection and dialogue (Mezirow, 1991).

The person does not merely acquire another technique. They begin to think differently about who they are and what is possible.

9. The Return

The journey is completed when learning is integrated into everyday life.

The aspiring coach begins coaching. The developing leader applies new behaviours within the workplace. The individual creates routines that support the changes they have made. The organisation embeds new practices into its culture and systems.

Without integration, an inspiring experience may remain temporary. The Return asks an essential question:

How will you bring what you have learned back into your life, work, relationships or community?

Applying the Hero’s Journey to Personal Change

The model can help people explore change without reducing their experience to a problem that needs to be “fixed.”

A practical personal-development exercise might include the following questions:

The Ordinary World

• What is happening in my life at present?
• What has become too limiting, uncomfortable or familiar?
• What patterns am I repeating?

The Call

• What opportunity, need or possibility is asking for my attention?
• What do I want that I do not currently have?
• What might become possible if I respond?

The Refusal

• What am I afraid might happen?
• What might I lose if I change?
• What assumptions are keeping me attached to the familiar?
• What positive intention might my resistance be serving?

The Mentor and Allies

• Whose support, experience or perspective would help me?
• What resources do I already possess?
• Who could provide constructive feedback or accountability?

Crossing the Threshold

• What decision have I been postponing?
• What is the first clear and observable action I can take?
• When will I take it?

The Tests

• What obstacles should I anticipate?
• How have I successfully responded to challenges in the past?
• What skills or resources will I need to develop?

Transformation

• What am I learning about myself?
• Which beliefs or behaviours are changing?
• Who am I becoming through this experience?

The Return

• How will I maintain and apply what I have learned?
• How might my development benefit other people?
• What will provide evidence that the change has become integrated?

These questions turn the Hero’s Journey into a practical map for purposeful reflection and action.

The Hero’s Journey as a Coaching Model

The framework is particularly useful in coaching because it accommodates goals, identity, emotion, resistance, action and learning within one coherent process.

A coach might begin by asking the client to describe their current situation as a chapter within a larger story. The client can then identify the call they are receiving, the threshold they need to cross and the challenges they expect to encounter.

This approach offers several benefits.

It externalises the challenge

When a client sees resistance as part of a journey, they may become less likely to interpret difficulty as personal inadequacy.

Instead of thinking, “I am failing,” they can consider, “I am encountering a predictable threshold or test.”

It supports identity development

Many coaching goals involve more than changing behaviour. They involve becoming someone capable of sustaining that behaviour.

Herminia Ibarra’s research into provisional selves suggests that people develop new professional identities by experimenting with possible ways of being, evaluating the results and gradually integrating what feels authentic (Ibarra, 1999).

A coach can therefore ask:

• What kind of person could successfully complete this journey?
• Which qualities does that version of you demonstrate?
• Where could you safely experiment with those qualities now?

It creates meaning from setbacks

Setbacks can be explored as information rather than treated as proof that the goal is impossible.

The coach can help the client identify what the experience reveals about their assumptions, strategies, resources or environment. This supports reflection while maintaining personal responsibility.

It encourages systemic thinking

No hero travels entirely alone. Coaching through the journey invites consideration of stakeholders, relationships, culture, resources and environmental constraints.

This helps prevent personal development from becoming an overly individualistic exercise in which every difficulty is attributed to mindset.

It provides structure without imposing a script

The Hero’s Journey should be used as an exploratory metaphor, not a rigid formula. Clients should not be forced to describe their lives as heroic adventures or to fit their experiences into predetermined stages.

The model is most powerful when offered as an invitation:

“If this period of your life were part of a journey, where might you be now?”

Practical Coaching Activity: Mapping the Client’s Journey

Invite the client to draw a pathway representing their current change journey.

Ask them to mark:

• Their present position
• The call or opportunity
• What they may need to leave behind
• The threshold decision
• Anticipated obstacles
• Existing and potential allies
• Skills and resources they need
• The most significant challenge
• The outcome or transformation
• How they will integrate and share their learning

The coach can then explore each point using sensory detail, scaling questions, outcome-focused language and future pacing.

The finished map becomes both a reflective tool and an action plan.

Applying the Journey to Leadership Development

Leadership development is itself a Hero’s Journey.

Moving into leadership often requires someone to leave behind an identity built primarily around personal expertise. They must learn to create clarity, influence others, navigate uncertainty, hold difficult conversations and achieve results through people.

Research distinguishes leader development, which focuses on individual capability, from leadership development, which also strengthens relationships, networks and collective capacity (Day, 2000). The Hero’s Journey can help integrate both dimensions.

Developing a leadership identity

New leaders frequently experience uncertainty because the behaviours that created success in their previous role may not be sufficient in the new one.

The journey allows leaders to explore:

• Which former strengths remain valuable
• Which familiar behaviours have become limitations
• What their new role requires
• Which leadership identity they are developing
• What support and feedback will help them grow

Leading through uncertainty

The period between an old reality and an emerging one can feel disorientating. William Bridges’ work on transitions distinguishes external change from the internal psychological transition people experience as they let go of an ending, move through a neutral zone and establish a new beginning (Bridges, 2009).

Leaders who recognise this are more able to provide empathy and direction. They understand that announcing a change does not mean people have psychologically completed it.

Using stories to create meaning

Leadership involves helping people understand where they are, why change matters and what they are being invited to create together.

Narrative and storytelling can help leaders communicate purpose, values and strategic direction. Organisational storytelling research also shows that organisations contain multiple, sometimes competing narratives rather than one perfectly unified story (Boje, 1991).

Effective leaders therefore listen as well as tell. They explore the stories people are already using to explain the change.

The Hero’s Journey as a Model for Organisational Change

Organisational change programmes often focus heavily on structures, systems, targets and implementation plans. These elements matter, but they do not fully address the human experience of change.

The Hero’s Journey adds an important narrative and psychological dimension.

Kotter’s influential work on organisational change emphasises the importance of urgency, a guiding coalition, vision, communication, empowerment and the anchoring of new approaches within culture (Kotter, 1996). The Hero’s Journey does not replace such change-management disciplines. It complements them by helping leaders understand and communicate the human story within the process.

However, leaders should be cautious about presenting themselves as the solitary hero who will rescue the organisation.

Sustainable change is usually collective. Leaders are more effective when they invite people to become active participants and co-authors of the organisation’s future.

Important Limitations of the Model

The Hero’s Journey is a metaphor—not a universal psychological law.

Campbell’s claim that a single structure sits beneath myths across cultures has been questioned by scholars who argue that it can understate historical, cultural and gender differences. The model can also encourage an overly individualistic view of success if social, economic and organisational realities are ignored.

Not every journey is linear. People may revisit stages, respond to several calls simultaneously or decide that a particular adventure is not right for them.

The framework is therefore most useful when applied flexibly and critically. It should open up possibilities rather than prescribe what someone’s experience is supposed to mean.

Melanie Richens and The Hero’s Journey

For learners who want to move from understanding the concept to applying it, Melanie Richens’ book, The Hero’s Journey, provides an important companion to this work.

Melanie brings a distinctive combination of professional coaching, advanced NLP, training, strategic leadership and organisational change experience. Before becoming a professional coach and trainer, she worked as a lawyer, progressed to partner within a top-100 law firm and later became a Director of People.

Her experience spans personal performance, career development, leadership, strategy and cultural change. This gives her exploration of the Hero’s Journey particular relevance for coaches and leaders who want to use the model in practical, responsible and outcome-focused ways.

Rather than treating the journey simply as an interesting piece of mythology, the book helps bring the concept into the world of personal exploration, coaching conversations and professional development.

Experience the Hero’s Journey on the UKCPD NLP Master Practitioner Programme

The Hero’s Journey will form the opening two-day workshop of the forthcoming UKCPD NLP Master Practitioner programme.

The programme begins by exploring the meaning of mastery before inviting participants to experience the Hero’s Journey as a model of self-exploration, personal and professional development, coaching and lasting change.

The live online workshop takes place on:

• Saturday 7 November 2026 – Welcome, the Meaning of Mastery and The Hero’s Journey
• Sunday 8 November 2026 – Applying The Hero’s Journey to personal development, professional development and coaching

Every delegate will also receive a copy of Melanie Richens’ The Hero’s Journey, providing a valuable resource through which to continue reflecting upon and applying the model.

This workshop is part of UKCPD’s comprehensive 20-day live online NLP Master Practitioner programme, delivered over seven months. The programme is designed for qualified NLP Practitioners, coaches, trainers, consultants, leaders and personal-development professionals who are ready to deepen their skills and move from applying established techniques towards greater flexibility, judgement and genuine mastery.

Alongside the Hero’s Journey, participants will explore advanced areas including NLP Modelling, belief and identity-level change, values, Meta Programmes, Quantum Linguistics, the Unified Theory of NLP, advanced change processes, coaching mastery and presentations and group work. The programme also includes specialist contributions from internationally recognised guest trainers Robert Dilts and Ross Temple.

The programme is accredited by the Association for NLP, with recognition from the International Association for NLP.

Discover the NLP Master Practitioner programme and upcoming workshop dates

Your Journey Begins with a Call

The lasting value of the Hero’s Journey is that it helps us see change from a different perspective.

A challenge may be more than an interruption. It may be a threshold.

Resistance may be more than a weakness. It may reveal something important that needs to be understood.

A setback may be more than a failure. It may contain the feedback required for the next stage of development.

A coach, trainer or leader may be more than an expert with answers. They may become the mentor who helps another person recognise their own courage, capability and direction.

We do not always choose the events that initiate our journeys. However, we can become more conscious of the meaning we give them, the resources we develop and the person we become along the way.

Perhaps the most valuable coaching question is therefore not simply:

“What do you want to achieve?”

It may also be:

“Who could you become through the journey of achieving it?”

References and Further Reading

Melanie Richens – The Hero’s Journey

Avolio, B.J. and Gardner, W.L. (2005). “Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership.” The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 315–338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.001

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: W.H. Freeman.

Boje, D.M. (1991). “The storytelling organization: A study of story performance in an office-supply firm.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 36(1), 106–126. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393432

Bridges, W. (2009). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press.

Campbell, J. (2008 [1949]). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 3rd ed. Novato, CA: New World Library.

Campbell, J. and Moyers, B. (1988). The Power of Myth. New York: Doubleday.

Day, D.V. (2000). “Leadership development: A review in context.” The Leadership Quarterly, 11(4), 581–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(00)00061-8

Grant, A.M. (2003). “The impact of life coaching on goal attainment, metacognition and mental health.” Social Behavior and Personality, 31(3), 253–264. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2003.31.3.253

Ibarra, H. (1999). “Provisional selves: Experimenting with image and identity in professional adaptation.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(4), 764–791. https://doi.org/10.2307/2667055

Jung, C.G. (1969). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Kegan, R. and Lahey, L.L. (2009). Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.

Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

McAdams, D.P. (2001). “The psychology of life stories.” Review of General Psychology, 5(2), 100–122. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.5.2.100

McAdams, D.P. and McLean, K.C. (2013). “Narrative identity.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(3), 233–238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413475622

Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Theeboom, T., Beersma, B. and van Vianen, A.E.M. (2014). “Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual-level outcomes in an organizational context.” The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.837499

Turner, V. (1969). The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine.

Van Gennep, A. (1960 [1909]). The Rites of Passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Vogler, C. (2007). The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. 3rd ed. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.