Living Abroad, Belonging & Finding Home

THERAPY FOR YOUR LIFE ABROAD

You don't have to navigate it alone.

As an English-speaking psychotherapist based in Riga, I offer online therapy for adults living in Latvia and internationally, where appropriate. I work with people from all backgrounds — including expatriates, international residents, students, remote workers, and anyone who simply feels more comfortable having therapy in English.

Having also experienced what it means to build a life outside my home country, I hold a personal understanding of some of the complexities that can come with belonging, identity, and creating a sense of home somewhere new.

Together, we can explore whatever you are experiencing at your own pace, in a space where you can feel understood and met with openness, curiosity and compassion.

Losing parts of who you were
Language, culture, career and unfamiliar surroundings can affect confidence and identity. You may find yourself wondering, Who am I here?

Feeling far from home — and not quite belonging anywhere
Loneliness, homesickness and the strange in-between of no longer completely belonging where you came from, while not yet feeling rooted where you are.

Living between staying and leaving
Do I build my life here? Go home? Start somewhere else? Sometimes uncertainty itself prevents you from putting down roots and allowing your life to feel fully yours.

Rebuilding your support system from the beginning
Missing family and old friendships, starting again socially, and discovering how much the familiar people around you once helped life feel manageable.

When moving changes your relationship
Particularly when you moved for a partner. One person may already have language, family, friendships and a sense of home while the other becomes increasingly dependent on the relationship for connection and belonging.

Holding complicated feelings about the life you chose
You can be grateful for the opportunities your life abroad has given you and feel lonely, exhausted, angry, homesick or uncertain. Both can be true.

Perhaps the hardest part isn't simply missing home, but trying to understand where home is now.

COMMON EXPERIENCES

You might be finding it challenging to:

LIFE ABROAD CAN BRING UP COMPLEX FEELINGS

It’s ok for it to be more complicated than you expected.

Living in a new country can be exciting, meaningful and enriching. It can also bring up homesickness, grief, anxiety, uncertainty, cultural fatigue and a sense of loss — even when it was your choice to move. All of these experiences can coexist, and none of them mean you’re not grateful for your life here.

You can feel grateful
and still feel lost.
Both can be true.

If something you've read resonates, you're welcome to reach out. We can meet take some time to understand what is brining you to therapy, and see whether working together feels right.