Are you considering expanding your practice online or already actively using videoconferencing? If so, you might find yourself working with a growing number of displaced clients, including professional expats, emigrants, international students, or digital nomads. These individuals often have a multilingual background, and their identity is significantly shaped by their experience of displacement.
To better serve this diverse population, therapists don't necessarily need to be displaced or multilingual themselves. However, developing a keen awareness of displacement-related issues is crucial. In his address to young therapists, Irvin Yalom advises them to cultivate 'rabbit ears' to tune into the here-and-now aspects of their patients' interpersonal problems (Yalom, 2009). For online therapists, it's equally essential to develop such 'displacement rabbit ears' to address a variety of displacement-related issues.
With nearly a decade of experience working with displaced clients online and conducting research on this topic, I can help you to better work online and in person with your displaced and multilingual clients. Exploring the online medium within a supportive peer relationship, especially if it's new to you, will boost your confidence in using it with your clients.
My consultation stance aligns with my therapeutic work, blending a relational modality with the humanistic existential approach championed by Dr. Irvin Yalom. I've found that engaging in supervision with peers who share a passion for these topics not only enhances professional efficiency but also brings joy and inspiration. I'd be delighted to share this expertise and joy with fellow therapists who can benefit from it.
If you need some extra inspiration before you move forward with peer supervision, you can read my book Therapy with Displaced and Highly Mobile Individuals, which is the result of my research and my reflecting on clinical work with displaced population, online and in-person.
For more information, please feel free to write at: expatstherapy@gmail.com.
I usually suggest that we meet online for a chat to discuss your supervision needs and see if there is a fit.