Sometimes the People Who Help Us Most Are the Ones Who Have Also Had to Rebuild Themselves

There is something deeply important about being supported by someone who not only has the professional expertise… but who has also walked through their own darkness, grief, uncertainty, or rebuilding.

Not because therapists should make the work about themselves.

But because lived experience creates a different kind of presence.

A deeper understanding.

A different level of empathy.

A space where people feel genuinely seen, not analyzed.

One of the reasons I connect so deeply with many of the expats and international professionals I work with is because I know firsthand what it feels like to navigate emotional challenges while living abroad.

I know how isolating it can feel.

To be functioning, working, doing what needed to be done on the outside… but internally, trying to hold together a version of oneself that no longer exist.

And what make things even harder is the feeling that you can’t fully express what you are going through in the spaces you find.

Because: Is not only looking for someone qualified. Is looking for someone who can truly hold space.

Someone who understand the emotional complexity of rebuilding your life far from home.

Someone who understand the silent loneliness that can exist even when life appears “fine.”

Going exactly through that experience changed the way I work forever.

It taught me that is not about having all the answers. It’s about having a space where you can finally stop carrying everything alone.

Today, through my counselling work, I support not from a place of “I know exactly how you feel,” because every journey is different.

But from a place of deep human understanding, presence, and compassion.

And I think that’s something many people are truly longing for today: not perfection, but real connection.

I’d genuinely love to hear from others living abroad: What has helped you feel truly supported during difficult periods of your life?

Issa Blanco Simmons

Counselling for Expats and Internationals in Munich | Starnberg | Online Sessions

www.englishtherapymunich.com