Why Consider Therapy for Expat Loneliness?

How comfortable we are in our lives often depends on how comfortable we are with ourselves. Many people feel a sense of ‘belonging’ with family. Some people feel most at ease with close friends. Introverts are often most comfortable in their own company. Others identify with their culture or nation. When we feel “at home” in ourselves and our surroundings, we can engage in relationships and activities of our choosing.

However, being in a new place with little support can be challenging. If you are in a foreign place, missing a solid foundation, building resilience and accessing your personal resources becomes crucial.

With more and more people choosing to build a new life in a new country with new cultures and new practices, expat loneliness has become prevalent and almost like a requisite step of the transition and journey.

If you’re away from home and depressed, you need a plan. Therapy can help.

You can find ways to make life more manageable and enjoyable where you are, while making appropriate choices for focusing your energy.

Are you on an adventure that isn’t working out? If “living the dream” has become just surviving, you might think you have to “soldier on”. But there is hope and help out there for an expat experiencing loneliness, overwhelm, and sadness. 

When you believe you’re stuck and can’t move, your creative brain shuts down. It doesn’t even try to help, because you don’t believe things can change. However, when you believe change is possible, your creative brain can unlock solutions that were previously hidden.

When you're creating a new life in a new place, the feelings of expat loneliness can overtake you.

If it feels like you’re struggling with expat loneliness, do any of these questions sound familiar?

It’s not what I expected and I don’t like it. How can I be happy here?

Hating where you are only builds your own mental prison. The key is to develop a strategy for moving beyond surviving – to thriving. Rather than getting trapped in self-pity, focus on identifying micro-steps for moving forward.

I have no energy and my relationship is in trouble. What can I do?

Whether you are on your own or someone else’s adventure, a reality check of your circumstances is important for gaining perspective. Taking a mental and emotional ‘Time Out’ helps you assess what is truly important. Bringing calm to your side of the equation can support negotiation with a partner and give the best chance of overcoming friction. In the case of a breakup, calm awareness can help you to act in your own best interests.

Can therapy or coaching really re-inspire exhausted expats?

If there are too many pressures in your life already, you may wonder how it will help to analyse the ways in which living abroad feels like a daily grind. Whether you work with me or another therapist, giving voice to your fears, concerns, and doubts in a supportive environment can help things move and shift in your perspective, awareness, and daily habits. 

My approach is based on the principle that it’s good to get it all out – letting go of anxious thoughts and feelings from your whole system. Sessions involve talking, questioning, visualising, planning – with room for raised voices, tears, and healing humor. There is agreed-upon homework, so you can experiment with doing things differently, day to day. The goal is to build your self-confidence, sense of safety, and spirit of adventure.

I work to help you find a renewed sense of purpose to overcome expat loneliness. Wherever you are in your life and wherever you are in the world, I offer virtual sessions world-wide. Face to face sessions can be arranged in Guanajuato City, Mexico. Contact me to arrange a free, no obligation 30-minute session to find out how you can move beyond self-doubt to build self-esteem and belief in your own worth.