For the last 14 months I, along with my husband and my two dogs, have been living in Barcelona, Catalunya, leaving behind our 5 acre farm, a beautiful creek, glorious green mountains and the fullness of the Western North Carolina diverse ecosystems.
As a long-time therapist whose identity is deeply entrenched in the complexity of psychotherapeutic human relations, interactions and exchanges between other humans and myself, it was not long before I needed to recreate the dynamic in this new context.
Since then, I have found significant relationships and camaraderie with other expat therapists, whom, perhaps not surprisingly, have had similar experiences.
Being curious, this led to the creation of a study of expat therapists and their expat clients. The study surrounds issues of the accommodations, modifications and changes of our own therapeutic experiential knowledge and of our experiences with this new populations, the expat client.
The study will gather information from expat therapists in the Barcelona area and will be delivered in a quick survey form of no more than 20 questions.
My goal is to shed light on the challenges and opportunities in providing therapeutic services to the expat population and how it has enriched our own therapeutic knowledge and expat experience.
"Are you an expat therapist working with expat clients in the greater Barcelona area? Would you be willing to participate in a study on the subject? If so, please email for more information to: isa@expattherapybarcelona.com"