Coping with Adaptation & Homesickness as an Expat
Leaving the familiar for the unknown can be both exhilarating and daunting.That’s when the problems with adaptation and homesickness start to arise. As an expat, you may find yourself caught between the longing for home and the pull of adventure. The excitement...
Overcoming Culture Shock in Expat Life
Culture shock is a natural psychological response to the stress of adapting to a new culture. It’s that feeling of being out of place, confused, and overwhelmed when one arrives in a new environment. It can occur when a person travels or moves to a foreign...
ACT and Living Expat Life to the Fullest
An effective way for expats to learn how to live life to the fullest is through acceptance and commitment therapy principles. It’s easy for anyone to feel lost and alone in this big, sometimes scary world. For expats, a new foreign country can feel like a world...
Overcome Procrastination in Expat Life through ACT
Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing something that needs to be done, and it’s accompanied by feelings of guilt, anxiety, and stress. Procrastination can harm expatriates because it can interfere with their work, relationships, and overall...
Overcoming Burnout in High-Achieving Expats
From all the expectations and demands of moving to a foreign country, it’s hard to be an expat who is not high achieving so burnout in high-achieving expats is commonplace. After all, most people don’t say yes to an opportunity like this, only to live an...
Coping with Living Far Away from Aging Parents
Living far away from aging parents and family is never an easy process. Still, it’s one that many people must face at some point in their lives. For some, the day they leave home may come rather suddenly. And for others who have already left, it can be the...
Expat Funk vs. Expat Depression
Expat funk is a relatively new concept for me. It is a particular English language expression, and I suspect colleagues use it to make it more relatable to a broader audience. In psychology, we call it adaptive mood reaction, reactive sadness or fatigue—even...
How Cognitive Distortions Affect Our Life Abroad
Cognitive distortions are habitual ways of thinking that cause us to view reality in negative ways. These inaccurate thought patterns dictate the way we interpret events in our daily life. Though people often develop cognitive distortions from prolonged and severely...
How Counseling with an Expat Psychologist will Support You
At the time you moved abroad, you may have been fulfilling your biggest dream. You may have planned everything you possibly could have to prepare for this significant transition. Still, you came to find that no amount of planning could have ever prepared you for how...
3 Reasons to Stop Comparing to Other Expats
Living abroad, it is almost inevitable that we start comparing to other expats. In our expat journey, we may ask ourselves… How can she have so many friends as I’ve been trying for so long, and nothing has happened? Why did she get a promotion if she is a...
Navigating Covid Fatigue and Reentry Anxiety as Expats
After more than one year, navigating the stress that covid fatigue has brought us, we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yet this light can blind us. That’s called reentry anxiety—the stress of coming back to everyday life. Expats had to deal with...
Stop Toxic Positivity Living Abroad
Toxic Positivity is a reality in our expat life. Phrases such as “Why can’t you just be happy?” or “At least you get to live abroad” are far from having a positive effect. On the contrary, it can be damaging because it disregards our...
Three Types of Loneliness and How They Impact Expats
Most of us can identify with what loneliness feels like. Whether it is a brief period of isolation or something more prolonged, a lack of social interaction can lead to mental health complications, such as depression and anxiety. Loneliness is especially a challenge...
Working from Home | 7 Ways to Prevent Burn-Out
While working from home (a.k.a. remote working) can be positive and productive, it has its downsides too. These last months many of us were “forced” to start working from home. That can bring many positive sides, but it can also complicate our daily life, routines,...Subscribe to my YouTube Channel
