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It is possible to love someone, care deeply about your relationship, and still find yourselves wanting different things from life. Perhaps one of you wants to settle down, whereas the other wants to travel or experience somewhere new. One of you may be thinking about having children, whilst the other is unsure. Perhaps your career ambitions are taking you in different directions, or you have begun to realise that you imagine very different futures when you think about where y

At times, you have a sense of what you want to do in life. You might know that a relationship needs to change, that you want to leave a job, that you are ready to move somewhere new, or that the life you are living no longer quite fits, and yet, you cannot seem to make the decision. You go over the possibilities in your mind, you imagine how things might turn out, you consider what other people will think, what you might lose, and whether you could end up regretting your choi

Thinking about couples therapy can bring up as many questions as the relationship difficulties themselves. What happens when you walk into a session? Will the therapist take sides? What if you disagree about what's wrong, or one of you isn't sure whether the relationship can work? Here's what couples therapy involves and what you might expect from the process. When you're thinking about couples therapy but aren't sure Perhaps you've been having the same argument for months. M

Have you ever arrived in a new country feeling excited about the possibilities ahead, only to find yourself feeling unexpectedly lonely a few weeks later? Perhaps you've met some lovely people, found a favourite café and started to feel familiar with your surroundings. You might even have begun to imagine what it would be like to stay a little longer. Then someone moves on, your own plans change, or the time comes to pack your bags and start again somewhere else. From the out

The digital nomad lifestyle is often celebrated through its freedoms. Work from a beach, wake up in a different country, meet people from around the world, leave whenever you feel like it, build a life that is independent of borders, routines and expectations. There is plenty of truth in that picture. There is also another side to digital nomad life that receives considerably less attention: the difficulty of belonging when your life is built around leaving. For some digital

If you find yourself telling an AI model or platform things you struggle to say to the people in your life, you are not alone. More and more of us are finding that there is more anonymity in confiding in AI than sharing with humans due to the fact that AI will agree with what you say and will not judge your experiences, views or opinions. However, there is a part of us that must consider where this information we are entering into the keyboards ends up, so it may be worth ask

The Power of Being Heard and Understood I decided to write a small series about the different therapeutic approaches that I either work with or influence me as a therapist in private practice, starting with person-centred therapy. This is the default approach that most training courses in the UK focus on and it laid the foundations for my practice and my personal ethos and approach with clients. At the heart of person-centred therapy is a deceptively simple idea: people bene

If you are in an intercultural relationship, you may have found yourself wondering: “Why do we keep arguing about things that seem so small?” Perhaps it was how your partner spoke to you. The way they responded to a message. How long they expected to spend with your family, who should pay for something, whether you were being affectionate enough, or how you handled a disagreement. To you, the issue might seem obvious, however, to your partner, it may mean something completely

An existential crisis is a period when the assumptions that have previously given your life structure, identity or meaning begin to feel uncertain. It can happen when you find yourself asking questions that are bigger than the immediate problems in front of you: Who am I? What am I doing with my life? What actually matters to me? Is this the life I want? What happens when the things I thought would make me happy don't? An existential crisis is not a mental illness or psychiat

Falling in love with someone from a different cultural, religious, political or family background can be exciting. It can also reveal tensions that neither partner expected. When your partner’s family does not accept you, the rejection can feel deeply personal, particularly when you have made an effort to understand their traditions, values and expectations. For intercultural couples, however, family conflict is often about more than whether relatives “like” a new partner. It

If life feels good right now, why would you need therapy? It is a reasonable question. We often think of therapy as something we turn to when life becomes difficult, when anxiety becomes overwhelming, a relationship breaks down, work becomes unbearable or we simply don't feel like ourselves anymore. But what if therapy didn't have to begin at the point of crisis? What if you could enter therapy whilst things are going well, when you have enough space and emotional capacity to

"I have a good job, a nice home and people who care about me. So why do I still feel empty?" This is one of the most common questions people ask AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot. They aren't necessarily looking for a diagnosis, but instead they're trying to understand why, despite achieving many of the things they once dreamed of, they still feel disconnected, dissatisfied or strangely unfulfilled. If you've found yourself asking questions such as: "Why am I unha

For many intercultural couples, the issue is not a lack of love or commitment, rather it is that each person is bringing a different set of assumptions about communication, family, independence, gender roles, religion, and what a “good” relationship should look like. At first, these differences may seem interesting as you discover your partner’s culture and open yourself up to a different way of thinking. You learn from each other, experience new traditions, and feel broadene

If you've ever found yourself sitting in a beautiful café overlooking the ocean, laptop open, wondering, "Why do I feel so lonely when I'm living the life I've always wanted?" you're far from alone. Many digital nomads and remote workers ask themselves “I became a digital nomad to feel freer. So, why do I feel lonely?” It’s a question more people are asking than ever before. Whether typed into Google or posed to AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude, many remote workers and digita

If you've ever completed a "love languages" quiz with your partner, you may have discovered that you express and receive love in different ways. One of you might value words of affirmation, whilst the other feels most loved through acts of service or quality time. Understanding these differences can be helpful, but for couples in intercultural relationships, the picture is generally more complex. As a couples therapist working with intercultural and international couples, I'v

If you and your partner are thinking about opening your relationship for the first time, you are not alone. Consensual non-monogamy (CNM), which includes open relationships, polyamory, and other forms of ethically non-monogamous relationships, has become increasingly visible in recent years. Whilst every relationship is unique, research suggests that couples who approach non-monogamy thoughtfully and intentionally tend to have more positive experiences than those who rush int

Over the last decade, the digital nomad lifestyle has transformed from a niche alternative way of living into a global cultural phenomenon. Social media feeds are saturated with images of freelancers working from beach cafés in Bali, entrepreneurs building businesses from Lisbon apartments, or remote workers documenting train journeys across Europe whilst speaking about freedom, self-discovery and escaping the traditional nine-to-five lifestyle. For many people, digital nomad

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “Wait… is this really my life?” as you edge closer to thirty, you’re not alone. That strange mix of pressure, doubt, and overthinking everything isn’t random, it’s what many people experience as an early-life existential crisis, and the stage I went through five years ago. As we’ve discussed so far and we can probably see in our own lives and in those around us, it often hits when the clear path you’ve been following, be it school, uni

From the outside, digital nomad life often looks exciting and free. Working from a cafe in Bali, joining coworking spaces in Bangkok, exploring neighbourhoods in Mexico City or building a temporary routine in Dubai or Lisbon can feel like a dream compared to traditional office life. But many remote workers and expats discover something unexpected after the initial excitement fades. Loneliness. An uneasy feeling of disconnection, which creeps up on you quietly and hard to spot

There are periods in our lives when things appear stable on the outside, yet internally something feels uncertain, disconnected, or difficult to name and describe. You might be functioning well day to day, working, maintaining relationships passively, meeting responsibilities, whilst quietly feeling lost in life. This experience is more common than many people realise. It doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong with you, or that you've made poor choices. Often, it reflect