Reflections on expat life, mental health abroad, and finding your way far from home.
When you move abroad, you don't just lose your address — you lose your entire social world. Building new friendships as an expat isn't optional. It's one of the most important things you can do for your mental health, and your sense of belonging.
Read moreThe expat partner who gives up their career, their identity, their support network — and is told how lucky they are. I've been on both sides, and the side that I take my strength and inspiration from isn't the one I'm on now.
Read moreWhen you move abroad, you don't just change your address — you experience a profound loss of the person you used to be. Your voice, your routines, your sense of competence — all of it unravels. And nobody talks about it.
Read moreIt's not easy being "other" — the one whose accent gives them away, whose presence is noticed before it's understood. Being an outsider is one of the quietest struggles of expat life. Here's what it's really taught me, and how I've learned to carry it.
Read moreAt 15, I moved from Rio de Janeiro to York, England, and the culture shock was seismic. Years later, the same person moved to Paris and fell in love with it immediately. What makes adapting to a new country easy sometimes, and devastating others? It comes down to something more emotional than practical.
Read moreYou've settled into life abroad — and then you go home. Suddenly your own country feels foreign. The disorientation of reverse culture shock is one of the most underacknowledged parts of the expat journey, and one of the most revealing.
Read moreThe funerals you miss, the weddings you can't attend, the goodbyes you never get to say. Sometimes this lifestyle takes its toll — it weighs heavily and feels selfish. But the size of your grief is the biggest measure of love.
Read moreI never imagined being on this side of the expat life — the mum whose child lives away — because I was always that child. I never considered how it felt on the other side. I knew I missed home, but I didn't know home missed me.
Read moreYou moved abroad for adventure, opportunity, or love. So why does it feel so hard to admit you're struggling? For many expats, asking for help feels like admitting defeat. But the truth is, the very qualities that got you abroad — independence, resilience, adaptability — can also make it harder to recognise when you need support.
Read more