Participants team up at a Retire Retirement Boot Camp.

---

Boot camps that aim to "retire retirement," vacations that let you try out dream careers and a new crop of life coaches are flourishing as boomers seek help making the transition to their encore careers.

“Sometimes a big turn in your life requires more concentration than we get on a daily basis," Judy Goggin, vice president of Civic Ventures, told The Wall Street Journal. "The idea of going away for a week – and stepping out from your regular world – can be really appealing.”

Last year Goggin helped lead a weeklong seminar on finding an encore career with Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners, coauthors of Don’t Retire, Rewire, at a conference center in Abiquiu, N.M.

Reporter Kelly Greene writes that others are turning to VocationVacations of Portland, Ore., to test out possible careers, including starting a nonprofit organization. Founded in 2004, VocationVacations offers trips lasting one to three days in 160 fields, with prices ranging from $649 to $2,000, not including accommodations. Those who sign up are matched with a mentor who shows them exactly what their prospective career entails.

Lin Schreiber, a former TV producer who is now a life coach, offers a weekend “Retire Retirement Boot Camp” each year in Stockbridge, Mass., to help people “stay positive when your 401(k) is plummeting.” She starts with asking people what they don’t want in later life, then helps them explore their dreams.

The North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement offers a “Paths to Creative Retirement” workshop that lasts 2-1/2 days and helps adults clarify what they want to do next in life. It is part of the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

For those who prefer one-on-one counseling, there are more options than ever. A recent survey of more than 5,400 coaches by the International Coach Federation in Lexington, Ky., found that 9 percent of respondents in North America do at least some retirement coaching.

Wall Street Journal reporter Ann Carrns singles out the Life Planning Network in New England, Howard and Marika Stone of 2Young2Retire.com and Schreiber’s RevolutionizeRetirement.com.

One way to find a coach, Carrns, says, is via the International Coach Federation’s “coach finder” tool, which searches by geography and specialty, including "retirement coach."

Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Civic Ventures, told Carrns, “Maybe a better title might be ‘un-retirement’ coaches, since they really help people do the opposite of retirement.”