English-Speaking Therapist in Barcelona (Online)

Moving to Barcelona can look wonderful from the outside: the sun, the sea, the new start. From the inside, it can also be lonely, tiring and confusing, and it is often hard to say so to the people around you. If you are living in Barcelona and looking for an English-speaking therapist, I work with you online, in English, from wherever is comfortable for you.

Is it normal to struggle after moving abroad?

Yes. Many people find that moving to another country is one of the hardest things they have done, even when it was their choice and even when they love it. It doesn’t mean you made the wrong decision, and it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. Leaving the place where you are known, and building a life from scratch, asks a lot of a person.

What living abroad can bring up

Everyone’s experience is different, but these are some of the things people tell me about:

• Feeling far from home. Missing the people who know you without explanation, and missing the small, ordinary things. Many people feel they are always the one who has to travel, and are never fully in either place.
• Loneliness, even in a busy city. Making friends as an adult is difficult. Barcelona is full of people, yet it can feel as if everyone else already has their circle.
• When the excitement fades. The first months can feel like an adventure. Then the novelty wears off, and the paperwork, the language and the practical weight of everyday life arrive, often just when your energy is lowest.
• Not feeling fully understood. Expressing yourself in a second language can make you feel like a smaller or simpler version of yourself, and some feelings are hard to put into words that are not your own.
• Who am I here? Your job, your friendships and your routines may all have changed. Many people feel between two places, not quite belonging in either.
• Relationships under strain. One partner moved for the other’s job, family is far away, and you are raising children without the support you imagined. Moving can put pressure on even strong relationships.
• Grief and guilt from a distance. Missing a birthday, a wedding or a funeral. A parent ageing or ill, and the guilt of being far away.
• Old patterns that travel with you. Anxiety, low mood, self-criticism or old pain can come with you, and sometimes feel louder when you have fewer people and routines around you.
• Pressure and exhaustion. Work, visas, money and uncertainty can wear anyone down.

If several of these sound familiar, you are far from alone.

How therapy in English can help

Having somewhere to talk, in the language you think and feel in, can be a relief on its own. Beyond that, therapy can help you:

• Make sense of what you are feeling, and stop blaming yourself for finding this hard.
• Get through the intense moments, with practical skills for managing big emotions, so they stop running the show.
• Work through what has resurfaced, at a pace that suits you, if old experiences have been stirred up by the move.
• Feel more settled and more like yourself in your new life.

How we would work together

A first session involves taking some history and getting to know you and what has brought you to therapy. This can take a few sessions, until we have covered the goals of therapy and made a plan together. I work collaboratively: I will present the options available and we will see where you want to go.

Depending on what you need, I draw on:

• DBT skills, for intense emotions and difficult moments.
• EMDR, for memories that still affect you, once you have the safety and tools to work with them.
• Parts work (IFS), to understand the different sides of you with curiosity and compassion, including the part that wants to go home and the part that wants to stay.
• An integrative approach, a mix of these, adapted to you as we go.

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About me

I was born in Spain, studied theatre and psychology at New York University and forensic psychology at John Jay College in New York, and I have lived on four continents. I know what it is to build a life in a place that is not where you started, and that shapes how I work: with curiosity about where you come from, and respect for the many ways people feel and express things. You can read more about me.

Common questions

Do I need to be in Barcelona? No. I work online with English speakers living in Spain and elsewhere. If you move or travel, we can continue without changing therapists.

Can we work in Spanish? I work in English and in Spanish. Many of the people I see choose English, because it is the language they feel most themselves in.

What does it cost? You can see my fees here. Your first 30-minute call is free, and there is no pressure and no commitment.

Ready to talk?

If you would like to see whether we are a good fit, book a free call. Not sure whether you need therapy at all? You can take the 3-minute self-reflection quiz, or the quiz that shows which approach might suit you.

Book a free call

Living elsewhere in Spain? I also work with English speakers in Mallorca.