From my research and the interviews I have conducted, I have no doubt that a Life Coach can add enormous value. If a coach can help the client to keep a positive attitude, to embrace change and view the challenges ahead as life learning experiences, then the expat move becomes one of opportunity, instead of loss. I have also come to the conclusion that the Companies responsible for the move would benefit by offering Coaching sessions to their employees spouse. Not only would it be beneficial for the spouse, it will help the whole family to settle in and allow the partner to focus on his/her job.
From my own personal experience, Coaching would have been a valuable resource in the early days of each move (particularly in KL when the children started telling people I talked to our bunny rabbits as I had no friends!). The past six years of living in Asia has been life changing for me. I now see the world as a relatively small place, I embrace new friends and experiences, I am more confident and self-aware. I have learnt that being independent gives you freedom to make choices and I have been lucky enough to have the time to devote to the career path that inspires me, which is coaching. All this I have I discovered in my journey as an expat, and I wouldn’t change a minute of this amazing lifestyle I lead. However, with a Life Coach to support and guide me, the transition in each country would have been so much easier. I would have settled sooner with each move, and been able to put strategies in place to build a network. Doing the research on this paper has been an invaluable experience for me as a person and a Coach. I believe that with the right help, expat spouses can focus on seeking meaning and purpose in a positive way with a sense of excitement and wonder, so that each move is more like a wonderful adventure instead of a trial to be endured.
As one expat spouse said:
Regardless of the reasons behind your relocation, a positive attitude is essential.
__________
References
Wikepedia – “Expatriate”.
The Culture Shock Tool Kit: Three Strategies for Managing Culture Shock. Gokun Silver, Margarita.
Global Coach Centre www.GlobalCoachCentre.com
HSBC explorer survey 2008
Expat Spouses: What do they want. Nina Cole, Associate Professor of Human Resources Management, Ryerson University in Toronto,
A Broad abroad: The expat wife’s guide to successful living Abroad. Robin Pascoe
The Expatriate Lifestyle: Are you cut out for living abroad. Kelly Herdrich. Contributing editor
www.expatwomen.com
www.shrm.org/research/surveyfindings/pages/globalhr.aspx
Families in global transition www.figt.org
Personal Interviews:
Ella – 7 countries, 20 years abroad
Christine – 2 countries, 4.5 years abroad
Susan – 1 country, 4 years abroad
Gerardine – 4 countries (about to start 5th), 16 years abroad
Helen – 1 country, 4 years abroad
Joannie – 1 country, 6 years
Catriona – 8 countries, 21 years abroad
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Maureen Morton
May 10, 2013 at 7:58 pm
Dear Karen
I found this article fascinating. I often wondered and marvelled at how you coped and were coping in those early years. To have remembered and written it down is so worth while and I hope it will go into the reading package of every new expat, wherever they are going.
I can also see a career blossoming for you, wherever you are, by introducing this concept, of providing a coach to expatriate spouses in the early days of their moves, to the Human resources manager of companies. You could certainly sell the idea on the basis of cost alone, when you think how much money they lose when an employee goes home early because the family cannot settle in a new country.
Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I really enjoyed reading it.
Nothing like the usual academic waffle
love and hugs
Maureen
Truth always
May 12, 2013 at 4:35 pm
Hey, Karen doesn’t mention here the really telling background story of how she came to be an expatriate, leaving her former policeman husband for her current one that’s a banker, with three kids under 10 at the time. Plenty of grey facts about whether it was adultry as well. Not sure I would recommend her services as a lifecoach. Amazing how some people re brand themselves so anyone needing marketing tips should follow her advice. Also one of her current family members seems to be leaving the positive notes. Karen as a lifecoach is the funniest thing I could ever imagine. Would be interesting to hear her guidance in ethics or family morals
e.curran
May 14, 2013 at 4:09 am
Truth always , isn’t it strange how people like you do not use their real name especially when they are leaving negative views, or just their side of a story.
vorameghana
May 30, 2013 at 2:55 am
Expatriate is very important, especially for those who travel to different countries for work purposes. Expatriate can be anyone which chooses to live in a country other than the motherland.http://www.whatisall.com/people/what-is-an-expatriate.html