I work with people who live somewhere other than where they’re from, and I know exactly what that does to a person because I’ve lived it myself, and I’m not going to pretend that “just video call a therapist” solves the actual problem, which is that you’re carrying your whole self across time zones and nobody around you fully gets what that costs. Living abroad gets sold as adventure and freedom and it absolutely can be that, and it’s also isolating in a way that’s hard to explain to people back home who think you’re “living the dream,” and it’s disorientating in a way that doesn’t have a name, and it can quietly chip away at your sense of who you are until you don’t recognise yourself anymore. That’s not a flaw in you. That’s what happens when the ground under your identity keeps shifting.
Maybe you moved for work and the novelty’s worn off and you’re left with the actual logistics of building a life somewhere unfamiliar, and it’s lonelier than you expected and you feel guilty even saying that out loud because you “chose this.” Maybe you’re a third culture person who’s never fully belonged anywhere, not really, not in the place you grew up and not in the place your passport says you’re from, and you’re tired of explaining that to people who’ve only ever lived in one country and one culture their whole lives. Maybe you’re in a relationship with someone from a different background and you’re navigating two sets of expectations, two families, two definitions of normal, and it’s exhausting in ways nobody warned you about. Maybe you left somewhere because you had to, not because you wanted to, and grief and relief are tangled up together in a way that doesn’t have a tidy label. All of that counts. All of that is exactly what I work with.
I offer online counselling for expats and international clients wherever you’re based, and because I’m BACP registered you’re getting the same standard of care you’d get sitting across from me in a room in Swansea, just without the flight. Sessions run over video, 50 minutes, at a time that works around wherever you are in the world, and I’ll be upfront that I work UK hours, so if you’re somewhere with a big time difference we’ll figure out together whether that’s workable before you commit to anything. I’m not going to pretend timezone gymnastics don’t matter, because they do, and better to name that early than have it become a quiet source of resentment six sessions in.
My approach is person-centred first, which means you lead and I follow, and I bring in gestalt, CBT, and creative interventions where they’re actually useful rather than because a textbook says so. Some weeks that looks like talking it out plainly. Some weeks it looks like a worksheet, or an exercise, or sitting with a feeling long enough to actually understand what it’s made of instead of rushing past it. I’m not here to hand you a five-step plan to “fix” homesickness or culture shock, because there isn’t one, and anyone promising you one is selling something. What I can offer is a consistent space, at a consistent time, where you don’t have to translate yourself or explain the context every single session, and where “an acceptable level of okay” is a completely legitimate goal, not a consolation prize.
No. I work with anyone who wants to speak to me in English, wherever you're from and wherever you're currently living, as long as we agree it's a workable and appropriate fit during your free intro call.
I work UK hours, so if you're somewhere with a significant time difference we'll talk it through honestly during your free 20-minute call before committing to anything. Better to know upfront than to have it become a problem three sessions in.
Book a free 20-minute call, and we'll talk it through together: book here.
That's most of who I work with, honestly. You don't need to be falling apart to want a space to think properly.
Yes, in line with BACP's ethical framework, with the standard exceptions around risk of serious harm, which I'll always talk you through clearly before we begin.
No. Expats, digital nomads, international students, people on short-term contracts abroad, people who've settled somewhere for good, people who left and are still figuring out how they feel about it — if you're living outside the place you consider "home," or you've never quite had a fixed sense of home at all, this is for you.
I can't currently do therapy with anyone based in the USA or Canada. For other countries, it is generally okay, but it is subject to local laws, so it is worth checking with me first.
For most people, yes, and it comes with the added benefit of not needing to find a therapist who happens to be registered in whatever country you're currently living in. What matters most is the relationship between us and whether you feel properly heard, not the medium.
