Expat counselling
As an expat of 14 years, I support people who belong to the international community.
If you’re living abroad or have recently relocated, you may be experiencing more than just a change of scenery. Perhaps you’re missing the familiar: friends, language, local customs, rhythm of everyday life. Maybe you’re feeling disconnected, untethered, or simply different from the world around you. In a person-centred therapeutic space, you’re invited to bring all of that.
What you might be noticing
- A persistent sense of homesickness or nostalgia – longing for ‘back home’, yet knowing things (including you) have changed.
- Feeling ‘in-between’ cultures: not quite fitting in with your new surroundings, and possibly feeling someone different at home too.
- A shift in identity: questions like Who am I now? What have I given up? What am I becoming?
- Loneliness or flatness, even when you’re surrounded by new people or exciting new experiences.
- Pressure to ‘make it work’ (your career, family, new country), combined with guilt or shame for struggling.
- A longing for connection, belonging or meaning in a place that doesn’t yet feel like home.
If any of this resonates, you’ve come to the right place.
How I can help
Using a person-centred approach, my focus isn’t on ‘fixing’ you, nor moulding you into someone else. Instead, I hold a space of genuine curiosity, acceptance and warmth, inviting you to explore your inner world and your experience of being an expat in all its complexity.
That means:
- We’ll attend to how you feel, what you think, how you live – and how the move has impacted you, consciously and unconsciously.
- We’ll honour the difficult parts (isolation, grief, regret) and the hopeful parts (growth, new perspectives, resilience).
- We’ll work through how it is to be you now – in this place, with this past and this future ahead.
- I’ll support you in reconnecting with yourself: your strengths, your past resources, your emerging sense of self in this new context.
- Over time, you may find you’re more comfortable in the unfamiliar, more open to change, and more able to trust yourself, even when life is shifting around you.
Why it matters
When you’re far from what you once knew, even the simple things can feel strange or heavy – new neighbourhoods, new social rhythms, new norms. And you may not always feel entitled to admit that you’re overwhelmed, or that you miss the old you, or that you are changing. What gets overlooked is that you’re not just relocating your address: you’re relocating your experience of identity, belonging and meaning.
This process — sometimes silent, sometimes loud — deserves attention. It deserves a space where you are met fully, without judgement, where your story isn’t ‘jus’t relocation or ‘just’ culture shock, but you: the person moving, adjusting, unsettled, hopeful, uncertain, curious.
What clients say they gain
- A renewed sense of connection with themselves – less weighed down by the ‘should’ be coping and more attuned to what they actually feel.
- Clarity about what they want now – including what to keep from ‘home’, what to let go, and what new directions feel meaningful.
- Increased resilience and acceptance of uncertainty – finding calm even when living between places feels unpredictable.
- Better relationships (with self and others) – learning to express how you’re doing, what you need, and to build community or meaningful connection even when things feel unfamiliar.
- A sense of belonging that’s rooted in you, not just the place – so ‘home’ becomes less about location and more about who you are.
Is this for you?
If you’ve moved country (or are planning to), or you’re living abroad and sense that the shift is more than just getting used to new routines, then yes — this could be for you. The invitation here is deeper: to explore your inner world alongside your outward world, to meet your experience with curiosity, and to reconnect with a sense of self that maybe got stretched or hidden by the move.
Whether you’re newly arrived or have been overseas for years, whether you came with excitement or you came with duty, whether you’re doing well on the surface or feel you’re just holding on — you matter, and your story matters.
If you’re ready to find that space, I’d be glad to hear from you.
Let’s connect
You don’t have to figure it all out alone. Reach out for our free introductory conversation – and we’ll see together how best to support you as you settle, grow and become more fully you.