Living in a New Country

Therapy for living in a new country

Living in a different country can affect more than just practical things. It can shape how you feel day to day, how connected you feel, how easy things seem, and how you experience yourself in your surroundings. For some people, this shows up as a sense of distance, uncertainty, or things feeling harder than expected. For others, it's more subtle. Therapy offers a space to make sense of what this experience is like for you, without assuming what it should look like.

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Andi Kerr Little, psychotherapist in Oslo
Qualifications BSc Psychology · MSc Applied Behaviour Sciences
Native English speaker Scottish. I understand your cultural world.
10 years in Oslo Lived expat experience in Norway
In-person & Zoom Oslo · All of Scandinavia online

Living in a different country can bring changes that are not always obvious at first. Things that used to feel straightforward can take more effort. Conversations, routines, and social situations can feel slightly different, even when everything seems fine on the surface.

For some people, this shows up as a sense of distance or disconnection. For others, it's more subtle, things feel a bit harder, or less settled, without a clear reason why. It can also affect how you experience yourself. You might notice changes in how you show up in different situations, or a sense that things feel less familiar than they once did. Everyone's experience is different, and it may shift over time.

Therapy offers a space to explore what this experience is like for you, without assuming what it should be.

HOW THERAPY HELPS

What the work involves

Therapy in this context is about making sense of your experience in a way that feels manageable and grounded.

Therapy in this context is about making sense of your experience in a way that feels manageable and grounded. In sessions, we begin with what you're noticing, how things feel day to day, what feels easy, what feels more difficult, and what seems to take more energy than it used to. The pace is shaped around you.

Some sessions may involve talking things through, while others focus more on how you're experiencing things in the moment. At times, we may explore patterns or reactions that feel relevant, particularly in how you relate to yourself or others in your current environment. For some people, it's helpful to make space for mixed or conflicting feelings, for example, appreciating aspects of life here while also finding parts of it difficult. Therapy allows that to be explored without needing to simplify it.

The work is gradual. Over time, the focus is on finding a way of relating to your situation that feels more steady and less effortful, and that fits with what matters to you.

Andi Kerr Little
ABOUT ANDI

I am Andi Kerr Little. I have been working as a psychotherapist in Oslo for ten years.

I am originally from Scotland and moved to Norway, so I know some of the complexity that can come with rebuilding a life somewhere new. The cultural rules are not always visible, and language and belonging can take time to settle. At times, living abroad can leave people feeling slightly out of sync with the world around them, questioning themselves more than they normally would, or feeling pressure to adapt more quickly than feels possible.

My background is in psychology, psychotherapy, and behavioural science, and I work in an integrative way that adapts to the person and what feels most relevant to them. My approach draws from relational psychotherapy, Compassionate Inquiry, and other approaches that support reflection, emotional awareness, and self-understanding.

Therapy can offer space to better understand yourself, your relationships, and the ways you may find yourself responding to stress, uncertainty, or difficult experiences over time.

PhD Candidate (current), UiT The Arctic University of Norway BSc Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London MSc Applied Behaviour Analysis, Newcastle University Integrative Psychotherapy Training, University of South-Eastern Norway Compassionate Inquiry Professional Training Programme
More about my approach
GUIDE

What to Know

Honest answers to questions people ask when they are trying to understand whether what they are experiencing is normal, significant, or something that requires attention.

How does living in a different country affect your sense of identity?

When the context that shaped you is no longer present, your sense of self can shift in ways that are hard to name. You might feel less certain of how you come across, or notice that things feel less familiar than they once did. This is a common experience, and it's worth paying attention to rather than waiting for it to resolve on its own.

Why is it important that my therapist understands this kind of experience?

Because the difficulties of living across cultures are specific and often not visible to people who haven't experienced them. A therapist who understands this context won't treat loneliness, identity shifts, or cultural disorientation as personal failings. They'll recognise them as real responses to a real situation, and know how to work with them.

What is culture shock and how does therapy help?

Culture shock is the disorientation that can come from moving to a new environment. It often includes phases of adjustment, frustration, and sometimes a kind of low-level grief. Therapy helps by naming what is happening, making space for the difficulty, and allowing the loss and identity shifts that accompany the change to be processed properly.

Why can loneliness feel different when you're living abroad?

It's often not about being alone. It's about feeling unseen or misunderstood in a room full of people, about not being known in the way you were before, or about the effort required to explain yourself in every interaction. This kind of loneliness can persist even when your social life looks fine from the outside.

Can living across cultures affect how you see yourself?

It can, for some people. When you're no longer surrounded by the context that formed you, you may carry multiple frames of reference without any of them feeling fully yours. This can create a sense of rootlessness that's worth exploring, particularly if it's affecting how you function day to day.

How do you deal with grief for a life that still exists?

This grief is often ambiguous, because what you left is still there. It's not lost, but it's no longer accessible in the same way. Therapy helps by naming this as a real form of loss and creating space to process it, without the pressure to simply move on or be grateful for what you have now.

What should I look for in a therapist for this kind of work?

Look for someone who understands this experience firsthand, who works in your native language, and who doesn't treat cultural adjustment as something that just takes time. You want a therapist who takes the psychological significance of living across cultures seriously, and has experience working with the patterns that come up in that context.

CLIENT EXPERIENCES

What people say

From people who came to therapy while navigating life in a new country.

I spent two years telling myself I just needed to adjust, but the loneliness was getting worse, not better. Working with Andi helped me see that what I was experiencing was not a personal failure. She understood the specific texture of expat life in a way that no one else had. The fact that she has lived it herself made all the difference. I could finally talk about how hard it was without feeling like I was being ungrateful.

S.M.
S.M., Bergen
Living in a new country

Therapy with Andi gave me permission to admit that I was struggling. I had this narrative that I was living the dream, so I felt like I couldn't complain. But underneath that I was miserable. Andi helped me understand that you can be grateful and still grieve what you left behind. That contradiction doesn't have to be a problem. The work we did together helped me make sense of what I was actually feeling, not what I thought I should be feeling.

J.L.
J.L., Oslo
Living in a new country

What helped most was that Andi didn't try to fix me or push me to integrate faster. She just let me talk about how disorienting it all was. The identity stuff, the constant low-level stress of never quite fitting in, the exhaustion of translating myself in every interaction. It was the first time I felt like someone actually got it. The sessions gave me a place to process what was happening without the pressure to be okay with it.

R.K.
R.K., Stockholm
Living in a new country
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COMMON QUESTIONS

Frequently Asked Questions

For some people, yes. Even when things are going well on the surface, everyday interactions, routines, and decisions can take more energy in a new environment. This doesn't always show up clearly, but it can affect how things feel over time. Many people find that things become more manageable gradually, as familiarity builds.

Communication involves more than language. Cultural expectations, social cues, and ways of relating can feel slightly unfamiliar, even when conversations seem straightforward. This can make things feel more effortful without it being obvious why. It's a common experience and worth exploring if it's affecting you.

It can, for some people. You might notice changes in how you respond in different situations, or a sense that things feel less familiar than they once did. This isn't always easy to put into words, but it can be useful to explore in therapy.

Therapy can offer a space to make sense of what you're experiencing and how it's affecting you. From there, we can begin to find ways of relating to it that feel more manageable and more in line with what you need.

Sessions can take place in person or online via Zoom. Both can be effective, and many people find online sessions easier when schedules are full or energy is low. You can move between the two depending on what works best for you.

The first session is a chance to talk through what's been going on and what feels most important to focus on. We'll begin to understand your situation and what might be helpful to work with, at a pace that feels manageable.

Sessions are 50 minutes and cost 1200 NOK in person or 1100 NOK online. Payment is via Vipps or bank transfer. If cost is a concern, we can discuss session frequency to find something manageable.

You can get in touch using the form on this page or by email. If you'd like, we can arrange a 20-minute call to talk through what's going on and whether working together feels like a good fit. From there, we can arrange a first session if it feels right.

Get in touch

If what you've read here feels familiar, get in touch. We can arrange a 20-minute call to talk through what's going on and whether working together feels like a good fit.

Book a free call +47 906 02 994