Clients who come through my office tend to do so after about 6 months into their stay in Buenos Aires, rarely before. Why is that? Well, often it's because the honeymoon of travel abroad is over and the reality of expat life begins to sink in, with its challenges and frustrations.
However, what surprises most clients is not so much that living abroad can be challenging...
One of the most frequent topics that comes up in both couples therapy with cross-cultural couples, as well as in individual therapy with clients in a cross-cultural relationship is that of geography. Arguments over how to get to the dinner date? Not quite…
In cross-cultural relationships there is an issue that inevitably arises: that of where to live.
Human beings have a natural tendency to try and make sense of things. When we are faced with a situation that we find to be foreign or incomprehensible, we tend to try and endow it with some sort of meaning. How do we do this? By categorizing and simplifying; in other words, we chew things up, keep what is easy to digest and discard the rest.
When living abroad, we are constantly faced with situations that fall outside of our “comfort zone,”...
One of the main difficulties that I encounter in my work with foreign clients is the question that often arises: what am I going to do in therapy, just talk? Whereas that question has singular implications for each person that asks it, I find that often there is a cultural issue behind it. For many cultures, it is not well-looked upon to talk about yourself. In fact, there exists the preconception that to talk at length about oneself is selfish or it can even be construed as complaining.
