The feeling surfaces as a sense of emptiness — boredom at work, an itch to do something else.

What's next?

That's the million-dollar question often haunting people at turning points in their lives. The next step isn't always clear or easy to reach.

Therapist Karen Gail Lewis sees clients struggling over their next steps. She calls them empty-nexters — a term she admits coining by accident when she meant to write "empty-nesters" on a brochure. But she thought the term aptly described those she sees searching for new meaning to their lives.

"There are lots of women who are really satisfied with their lives, but then they're ready for something else," says Lewis. She has a marriage and family therapy practice in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati. She also conducts women's retreats throughout the country.

She describes empty-nexters typically as women in midlife or older, often baby boomers, who have married, raised children, taken care of their husbands and homes, enjoyed careers, but often put others' needs ahead of their own. They've followed society's expectations. But now expectations of what they should do or be aren't as clear-cut.

Often, something significant has changed in their lives. Their children have left home, or the last one has entered elementary school. Both parents or their husband may have died. Perhaps they've gotten divorced, or their job is no longer satisfying. Maybe they're facing retirement.

"They say, 'My life has changed in some significant way. I don't know what it is, but I know there is something significant out there for me,' " Lewis says.

'SECOND MIDLIFE'

Louise Dunn, a personal life coach in Indianapolis, sees the same issues among her clients, both women and men. Part of the reason, she says, is that people are living longer and staying healthier because of advances in healthcare.

"We're living in a time frame now where the 60- to 80-year period is considered second midlife," she says. "Now, 85 is considered old age."

Many people don't want to settle for a retirement of golfing and taking it easy. "People are hitting this wall around 60 and not necessarily knowing what to do with that 60- to 80-year gap," says Dunn, a former minister who now runs her coaching business, Riches Within (www.richeswithin.com). "They want to be in retirement, yet they want their life to be rich and meaningful."

Empty-nexters don't move forward until they conquer their fears or figure out what is holding them back. "I call it the invisible elephant in the room stopping them," Lewis says.

Some fear success — or its repercussions. They worry how their spouse or friends will react to changes they're making.