The Expat Therapist: Navigating Mental Health

Ariel Roberts
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Places & Travel
  • Updated Weekly

"The Expat Therapist: Navigating Mental Health Abroad" is a podcast that offers insights, advice, and strategies for expats needing guidance with mental health struggles on their journey and guidance for individuals anticipating a move abroad. Hosted by a licensed clinical therapist and fellow expat, the show aims to help listeners overcome the unique challenges of moving and living abroad and achieve greater well-being and happiness. 

  1. Jun 8

    084 Avoiding My Finances (And What It Was Really About)

    🎙 Join me live on Friday, June 19th for my free masterclass, Why You Don’t Feel Like Yourself Abroad, where we’ll dive deeper into the emotional, psychological, and identity shifts that happen after moving abroad—and how to begin feeling grounded, confident, and connected to yourself again. Register here (:  ✨ For years, I thought my problem was money. But looking back, finances were never actually the issue. Avoidance was. In this episode, I’m sharing how avoidance became a protective shield during some of the hardest seasons of my life abroad — including identity shifts, motherhood, relationship challenges, emotional overwhelm, and navigating life in a different country. We’ll explore why avoidance is often a nervous system response rather than a character flaw, how survival patterns can quietly keep us stuck, and what changed when I finally stopped running from the things that felt uncomfortable to face. If you've ever found yourself avoiding finances, difficult conversations, decisions, or even your own emotions, this episode is for you.  And if you’re craving community and conversations around the emotional side of expat life, come join us inside the Becoming Her Abroad Facebook group — a safe space to normalize the parts of culture shock and identity shifts no one warned us about. Schedule your 30-minute Clarity Call with me here!  ✨ Follow me on TikTok and Insta (Comment/DM and tell me what you would like to hear more of!)

    26 min

  2. May 25

    083 Your Body Remembers: Trauma, Identity Shifts & Living Abroad

    Schedule your 30-minute Clarity Call with me here!  And if you’re craving community and conversations around the emotional side of expat life, come join us inside the Becoming Her Abroad Facebook group — a safe space to normalize the parts of culture shock and identity shifts no one warned us about. — In this episode, we dive deep into the nervous system, unresolved emotional patterns, and why living abroad often activates parts of ourselves we thought we had already healed. Because moving abroad doesn’t just change your location. It changes your relationship to EVERYTHING. And when the nervous system loses familiarity, old survival responses often rise back to the surface. We are exploring: • What the nervous system actually is and how it works  • Why your body prioritizes familiarity over fulfillment  • How unresolved emotional patterns continue shaping your reactions and behaviors subconsciously  • Why moving abroad often triggers anxiety, irritability, emotional overwhelm, and identity confusion  • The 3 stages of identity crisis abroad: disorientation, reconstruction, and embodiment  • How unresolved nervous system patterns can affect relationships, communication, confidence, and emotional stability  • The difference between survival mode and true emotional safety  • What healing actually looks like beyond surface-level coping skills If you’ve been feeling more reactive, emotionally exhausted, disconnected, stuck, or unlike yourself abroad… this episode will help you understand why. Not from a place of shame. But from a place of awareness. Because your nervous system is not working against you. It’s trying to protect you the best way it knows how. ✨ Follow me on TikTok and Insta (Comment/DM and tell me what you would like to hear more of!)

    21 min

  3. May 18

    082 The Netflix Movie Version of My Marriage Abroad

    Schedule your 30-minute Clarity Call with me here!  And if you’re craving community and conversations around the emotional side of expat life, come join us inside the Becoming Her Abroad Facebook group — a safe space to normalize the parts of culture shock and identity shifts no one warned us about. — If someone turned my relationship abroad into a Netflix movie… this would probably be the emotional plot twist episode. Today, I’m opening up about my relationship, the emotional realities of navigating marriage abroad, and why living in another country can quietly place pressure on relationships in ways most people never expect. Because sometimes it’s not just culture shock. It’s nervous system overload.  Identity shifts.  Loss of support systems.  Emotional exhaustion.  And two people adapting to a completely new life in entirely different ways. In this episode, we talk about: • Why relationships can feel emotionally harder abroad  • How moving abroad affects patience, communication, and emotional regulation  • Why so many expats feel more reactive, disconnected, or unlike themselves in relationships  • The emotional weight of adapting while trying to maintain intimacy and connection  • How nervous system overwhelm impacts romantic dynamics  • The difference between relationship dysfunction and emotional overload This is not an episode about blame. It’s about awareness. Because sometimes the issue isn’t that the relationship is failing… it’s that both people are overwhelmed, adapting, and trying to survive major identity shifts at the same time. If you’ve been feeling emotionally stretched thin in your relationship abroad lately, this episode will help you feel less alone in it. ✨ Follow me on TikTok and Insta (Comment/DM and tell me what you would like to hear more of!)

    27 min

  4. May 11

    Why Surface Level Healing Isn't Working For You Anymore

    Schedule your 30-minute Clarity Call with me here!  And if you’re craving community and conversations around the emotional side of expat life, come join us inside the Becoming Her Abroad Facebook group — a safe space to normalize the parts of culture shock and identity shifts no one warned us about. If a lemon tree starts producing rotten lemons… do you focus on the lemons? Or do you examine the soil, the roots, and the internal environment feeding the entire tree? In this episode, we explore one of the biggest emotional mistakes so many expat women make while living abroad: trying to fix the visible symptoms without addressing the deeper root causes underneath them. Because snapping at your partner, feeling emotionally exhausted, questioning your move, feeling disconnected, anxious, unmotivated, or “not like yourself” are often not the actual problem. They’re symptoms. And when we only focus on changing behaviors without understanding the internal environment producing them… we stay stuck in the same cycles. In this episode, we talk about: • Why emotional symptoms abroad are often rooted in nervous system overload and identity misalignment  • The difference between surface-level coping and true internal healing  • Why gratitude and “thinking positive” aren’t enough when you feel disconnected  • The emotional cost of ignoring what’s happening underneath the surface  • How chronic adaptation, emotional suppression, loneliness, and lack of support impact expat mental health  • What it actually means to “heal at the root” while living abroad If you’ve been trying to fix yourself but still feel emotionally off… this episode will help you understand why. You are not broken. Your nervous system, identity, and emotional environment may simply need deeper support than surface-level solutions can provide.

    21 min

  5. May 4

    080 Q&A from The FB Expat Women Community

    I asked expat women in my FB Group Community (Join Here!) what they’re really struggling with right now… And the answers? They were almost identical. Which tells me something important: You’re not alone in what you’re feeling. In this episode, I’m answering some of the most honest, raw questions expat women are navigating behind the scenes — the ones that don’t always get said out loud. We talk about: • Why you might feel more reactive, overwhelmed, or on edge abroad  • What it actually means when you feel like you “want more” but don’t know where to start  • How to reconnect with yourself after the emotional rollercoaster of moving abroad  • Why loneliness can exist even when you’re surrounded by people  • The real reason you keep second-guessing your decision to move  • And what it means when part of you still wants to go back home If you’ve been feeling off, stuck, disconnected, or unsure of yourself… this episode will help you understand why. And more importantly—help you feel less alone in it. You’re not doing this wrong. You’re navigating something that most people were never taught how to handle. ✨🧘‍♀️ Becoming Her Abroad - APPLY HERE ✨ Follow me on TikTok and Insta (Comment/DM and tell me what you would like to hear more of!)  If you’re an expat woman in the EU time zone navigating this exact phase — feeling off, disconnected, or unsure how to move forward — I currently offer 1:1 support and consultation calls to help you realign and feel grounded in your life abroad again. You can book a free 30-minute consultation here.

    22 min

  6. Apr 20

    079 I LOVE MY LIFE ABROAD...so why do I feel like this?

    ✨🧘‍♀️ Becoming Her Abroad - APPLY HERE You built the life you once dreamed about. So why does it feel like something’s missing? In this episode, we dive into a quiet but deeply common experience for expat women — the emotional contradiction of loving your life abroad… while also feeling disconnected from it. Because sometimes, nothing is technically wrong. And yet, internally, things feel off. You might feel:  anxious or unsettled for no clear reason  disconnected from your environment or relationships  unsure of yourself or your next steps  guilty for not feeling as happy as you “should”  stuck between knowing this is what you wanted… and not understanding why it doesn’t fully feel right This episode explores the deeper layers of that experience — beyond surface-level advice or “just be grateful” narratives. We talk about: • Why gratitude doesn’t resolve emotional disconnection  • The difference between external success and internal alignment  • How emotional suppression shows up in your daily life (and relationships)  • The identity shifts that happen when you live abroad — and why they can feel destabilizing  • The real cost of staying stuck in misalignment (in your relationships, career, and personal growth)  • How to begin reconnecting to yourself without abandoning the life you’ve built If you’ve been questioning your feelings, second-guessing your decisions, or wondering why you don’t feel like yourself… this episode will help you understand what’s really going on. You’re not ungrateful. You’re not broken. You’re in the middle of becoming. — If you’re an expat woman in the EU time zone navigating this exact phase — feeling off, disconnected, or unsure how to move forward — I currently offer 1:1 support and consultation calls to help you realign and feel grounded in your life abroad again. You can book a free 30-minute consultation here. And if this episode resonated, I’d love to hear from you — what part of this hit home the most? ✨ Follow me on TikTok and Insta (Comment/DM and tell me what you would like to hear more of!)

    25 min

  7. Apr 6

    078 A TCK’s Perspective: My Son on Living Between Spain and the U.S.

    This episode is a little different… and one I’ve been really excited to share. Today, I’m sitting down with my son for an honest, unfiltered conversation about what it’s actually like growing up between countries — specifically between Spain and the United States. We talk about the good, the hard, and some things that often go unnoticed when raising a child abroad. Because while we, as parents, navigate identity shifts and emotional transitions… our kids are experiencing their own version of that too. And sometimes, we don’t pause long enough to really hear it. In this episode, we explore: • What he loves about living in Spain vs. the U.S.  • What feels hard or confusing about moving between cultures  • How friendships, school, and identity feel from his perspective  • The differences he notices that adults might overlook  • What it’s like living as a “third culture kid” (TCK) This conversation offers a glimpse into the emotional and lived experience of a child growing up abroad — something that’s often talked about around them, but not with them. If you’re raising children abroad, thinking about it, or simply curious about how this lifestyle shapes identity from a younger lens… this episode will give you a perspective that’s both grounding and eye-opening. ✨ Follow me on TikTok and Insta (Comment/DM and tell me what you would like to hear more of!)

    22 min

  8. Mar 30

    077 Why Expats Struggle to Ask for Help (and How to Change It)

    ✨🧘‍♀️ Becoming Her Abroad - APPLY HERE Asking for help sounds simple… until you’re living abroad. In this episode, we’re unpacking one of the most common — and least talked about — struggles expat women face: the difficulty of reaching out for support, even when you need it most. Because the truth is, it’s not just about “being independent.” There are real psychological, emotional, and environmental reasons why asking for help feels heavier when you’re navigating life in a new country. From disrupted support systems to nervous system overload, to the internal pressure of “I chose this, so I should be able to handle it”… many women find themselves silently carrying more than they need to. In this episode, we explore: • Why asking for help feels harder abroad than it did back home  • The hidden pressure expat women feel to “have it together”  • The clinical reality of nervous system overload and reduced capacity  • Why receiving support can feel more uncomfortable than giving it  • Small, practical ways to begin letting support in again If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, or like you’re carrying everything on your own… this conversation will help you understand why — and remind you that you don’t have to do this alone. If you’re an expat woman in the EU time zone navigating identity shifts, emotional overwhelm, or simply craving deeper support, I currently offer 1:1 spaces and consultation calls to explore working together. You can find the link in the show notes to book a free 30-minute consultation. And if this episode resonated, I’d love to hear from you — send me a message and tell me what support would feel most helpful for you right now. You’re allowed to be supported, too. ✨ Follow me on TikTok and Insta (Comment/DM and tell me what you would like to hear more of!)

    21 min
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About

"The Expat Therapist: Navigating Mental Health Abroad" is a podcast that offers insights, advice, and strategies for expats needing guidance with mental health struggles on their journey and guidance for individuals anticipating a move abroad. Hosted by a licensed clinical therapist and fellow expat, the show aims to help listeners overcome the unique challenges of moving and living abroad and achieve greater well-being and happiness. 

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